High profile candidates for public office are so crunched by the need to raise ever-larger sums of money to fund their campaigns that they're forking over millions to fundraising consultants who'll help collect the checks. As Christopher Cooper of the Wall Street Journal reports, the wider nets cast by these consultants are hauling in some questionable catch.

Public Campaign is part of a coalition that just released a report, "Breaking Free with Fair Elections," in support of the Fair Elections Now Act introduced by Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Arlen Specter (R-PA). The Syracuse Post-Standard covers the release of the report, focusing on the contrast between campaign contributions from wealthy zip-codes, and those from less wealthy areas and the resulting distortion of the voices heard in Washington.

Just so we're clear: candidates asking donors for big contributions are just doing their job, but when they ask for small contributions it's scandalous. At least that's what a post earlier today at the Hotline political journal seemed to suggest, a bit of doublespeak that David Sirota skillfully eviscerates; praising candidates who want to involve regular people in their campaigns and who go ahead and ask for their support.

In response to this editorial that appeared in The Hill equating elections with popularity contests won by the best fundraisers, Public Campaign president and CEO Nick Nyhart, along with Common Cause president and CEO Chellie Pingree wrote this letter to the editor lamenting the rise of the "wealth primary" and the potential in a Clean Elections system to make choosing our elected leaders about ideas - not dollars.