Public Financing Would Lure Voters

By Ralph Wheeler, Letter to the Editor

To unleash people's voting power, campaign-finance reform is needed ("Disturbing trend in voting report: Electorate lacks the diversity of the population,'' Page 4B, Sept. 14). My daughter lives in Arizona, which has public financing of elections. More minorities and women successfully run for office now that special interests no longer rule with large campaign contributions. Arizona's Legislature looks more like its population and legislators do not owe favors to special interests. California's Proposition 89 will remove the cynicism of our voters and inspire a more diverse group of candidates to run for elected office. Hopefully, it will eliminate pay-to-play politics.

Ralph Wheeler
Palo Alto

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