A chance to run clean campaigns

By Nick Gleiter, Letter to the Editor

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (Opinion, May 18) has it right in calling for support of the national Fair Elections Now Act. Instead of politicians having to "dial for dollars" to fund today's excessively expensive campaigns, we could have candidates who have proven broad support receive enough money to run a campaign. This takes the wealthy special interests right out of the picture.

California has its own pilot Fair Elections Act coming on the June 2010 ballot which will let secretary of state candidates get out of the pay-to-play system which plagues California politics from the governor's office on down. In Maine and Arizona, the voters and the politicians love it, and it has opened up the political process beyond the well-connected. With the financial meltdown, voters are disillusioned with the current system, but now have a chance to put things right by allowing elected officials to run campaigns with integrity and accountability.

Nick Gleiter
Oakland

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