This week’s edition of Newsweek will feature Anna Quindlen’s article about public financing in Arizona’s elections. Although clean elections may not be the final answer, Quindlen reports, offering a voluntary system of public funding “does much of what it is supposed to do: gives ordinary people a sense of ownership, eliminates the automatic advantages of incumbency and opens the door to a broader field.”

John Rauh, founder of Americans for Campaign Reform and friend of Why Tuesday?, agrees that offering an alternative to privately funded campaigns is of ultimate importance. Candidates who choose public funding need to feel that they can compete, after all, Rauh says, “You cannot buy an election. You can only lose it if you don’t have enough to make an impact.”

For more information about public funding of federal elections check out Americans for Campaign Reform’s Just 6 Dollars initiative and Why Tuesday?’s campaign finance blog posts. Also watch our episode on Clean Elections.

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