The Charlotte Observer is running an op-ed by Democracy North Carolina's Bob Hall calling for an expansion of North Carolina's Voter-Owned Clean Elections system, currently available only to statewide judicial candidates. The scandal-racked legislature is expected to consider reform when the session convenes next week.

Given yesterday's passage, in the House, of a much-touted by ultimately uninspiring "earmark reform" bill aimed at changing lobbying practices, this sentence seems particularly apt: "We can limit gift-giving by lobbyists, open up the legislative process to more public debate, create an ethics commission with real teeth, even limit the terms for House speaker and Senate president pro tem -- all good proposals -- but until we change the dominant role of political fund-raising, we won't change the political culture."