Last week the Toledo Blade ran a story on the high cost of campaigns keeping people from running for municipal office. In response, our President and CEO Nick Nyhart wrote this letter on the potential for Clean Elections-style full public financing to remove this barrier and allow candidates from diverse backgrounds to seek office in greater numbers. The full text of the letter is as follows: Strong case for 'Clean Elections'Your Jan. 21 article about qualified candidates being deterred from running for office because of the high price of campaigning highlights the growing need for publicly financed elections.Clean Elections - or publicly financed elections - is law in seven states and two cities.Under Clean Elections, candidates from all walks of life are being elected without having to raise exorbitant amounts of cash.A waitress, school teacher, and small business owner all have won under Clean Elections.Once in office, Clean Elections candidates are free to legislate without regard to the source of their campaign cash and are able to focus on the needs of their constituents.Clean Elections candidates voluntarily opt into the system that provides them a grant to run their campaign once they demonstrate broad-based community support by collecting a set number of small contributions, usually $5.Once qualified, candidates must adhere to strict spending limits and can no longer accept any private contributions.This idea is taking hold in Washington as well. In the coming weeks, Sen. Dick Durbin will be introducing a Clean Elections bill in the Senate and Reps. Raul Grijalva and John Tierney will be introducing a companion bill in the House.Nick NyhartPresident and CEOPublic CampaignWashington, D.C.