Dan Morain at the Los Angeles Times examines the huge amounts of money being spent on candidates and initiatives in California during this year's election cycle. He looks particularly at the race between state Treasurer Phil Angelides and state Controller Steve Westly in the Democratic primary race for governor. The two have combined to spend $56.9 million so far with a little under two weeks to go before the primary.

Amidst this huge outpouring of campaign cash, the California Clean Money and Fair Elections Act, a public financing proposal designed to provide an alternative to this kind of campaigning has been passed by the State Assembly and has now gone to the Senate, and the California Nurses Association have submitted signatures to have a public financing initiative put on the November ballot. Pretty sharp contrast.