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.  The full text of the letter is as follows:  Full public funding of elections proven to work in states, citiesFrom Nick Nyhart, president and CEO of Public Campaign, and Chellie Pingree, president and CEO of Common CauseWe were troubled to read the editorial in The Hill entitled “Running for Money” (Jan. 12). A democracy should be about all of us and not just those who can afford to write huge checks. The wealth primary — where less than one-tenth of one percent of the population makes contributions to candidates — is the seedy underbelly of our electoral process. It’s during this time when candidates dial for dollars and run around the country courting a privileged few, hoping a coronation — as well as thousand-dollar checks — from political elites will soon follow. Our elections should be about ideas and experience instead of dollars and donors. And in some places they are. To date, seven states and two cities have enacted Clean Elections campaign reform — also known as full public financing of elections. In the two states that have had Clean Elections since 2000, Maine and Arizona, the system is extremely popular. Currently, 84 percent of the Maine House and Senate, and nine out of 11 statewide elected offices in Arizona, including the office of governor, will be occupied by people who ran and won under a Clean Elections system. To submit that the person with the largest pile of thousand-dollar checks is the anointed winner of some back-room “popularity contest” as a good way to elect our officials is irresponsible and just plain wrong. It’s time to make elections about voters, not campaign donors, and Clean Elections is the common-sense solution that will do just that. Washington, D.C.