Campaign Spending and Special Interests
By Craig Dunkerley, Letter to the Editor
This article highlights the need for public campaign
financing that compensates candidates who opt in for the
difference between what they can receive and spend, and
what their special-interest-funded opponents (who opt out)
receive and spend.
For a candidate to run in such a "clean money" system is an
essential public service, not a taxpayer burden. The cost
is minuscule, and elected officials who don't owe favors to
special interests after the election are invaluable. Such
systems are now successfully being used in Arizona and
Maine, and are up for consideration in California in
January. Clean money means fair elections.
Craig Dunkerley
San Jose
See the article on Los Angeles Times website