Nick Nyhart, Public Campaign's executive director, has penned this memo to editorial board members and interested journalists exhorting Congress to take up public financing of congressional elections when it considers a slate of ethics bills in January. No comprehensive reform will be effective until it directly addresses the influence of private contributions on the political system and puts an alternative measure in place by which those officials who wish to represent their constituents ahead of big money interests have a competitive chance to seek office without taking private money. One hundred and eight members of what will be the 110th Congress are already supporters of public financing. including prominent members of Democratic leadership - surely they can look to the success Clean Elections has enjoyed in Maine, Arizona, and states around the country and see that an alternative exists, and is working. If the next Congress wants to "drain the swamp" of Washington and clean up the corridors of power, they must get serious about full public financing of elections.