Yes, we need to get private money out of politics, first for State elections, then for City and federal elections. The Supreme Court says money is speech and we can't stop people from giving it, but candidates can voluntarily refuse to accept it after collecting enough small donations Within Their Own Districts to prove they are viable candidates.

We could have more reasonable development in the City and better tenant protection and rent laws if developers and landlords couldn't buy upstate votes. We could have better prescription drug prices if big pharma didn't spend $40 or $50 thousand a year in Albany. We would have more to spend on affordable housing and health and education if we weren't paying for political favors, tax breaks and overpriced contracts to campaign donors.

Definitely, FULL public funding for election campaigns is the wave of the future, and New York State has to get on board (sorry for the mixed metaphor, but you get my point).

It works - and it has worked spectacularly in Arizona and Maine for three election cycles, with more and more candidates opting in on each cycle. The Arizona governor, Napolitano, has won two elections using the system, and a waitress in Maine - with no private funds of her own - got elected and has already sponsored some significant legislation concerning child welfare and protection.
Connecticut has now put it on its books for 2008.

It's probably going to be a state-by-state movement across the nation - and who knows? maybe eventually presidential candidates will have an opportunity to go for it.

Get big business interests and corporations OUT of politics.

Call Governor Spitzer's office - 518 474 8390 - and tell him you support HIS support for full public funding. And then write your assembly rep and senator. It's coming up in a matter of weeks.