The North Carolina Voters for Clean Elections Coalition (NCVCE) rallied over a hundred people in Raleigh, North Carolina yesterday to lobby their lawmakers in support of a bill, HB-1851, that would establish a public financing pilot project in four legislative districts in 2008. Read more about the lobby day here and here.

North Carolina has already seen the successful implementation of a public financing program for its judicial races, the program on which HB-1851 was modeled. Candidates would collect a set number of small qualifying contributions and agree to strict spending limits in exchange for a grant to run their campaign. In the last election cycle, 12 of the 16 candidates for the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court qualified to use the system. Local scandal and the rising influence of special interest money on elections in the state have propelled the coalition's efforts to make the public financing option available in more races.

NCVCE is comprised of 35 organizations, among them the North Carolina branches of the AARP and NAACP.