Chris Lizak of Progressive Democrats of North Carolina outlines his recipe for cleaning up corruption in the state in this editorial in The News & Observer, citing the recent guilty plea on corruption charges by former House Speaker Jim Black as prime evidence for change, but cautioning against focusing only on front page scandal, rather than the "apple barrel that has been left in the sun to rot": that is, problems within the system that encourage corruption. Among his recommendations to clean up the Statehouse is for North Carolina to: Deal with the root cause of most political corruption -- the necessity of raising large amounts of cash to get and stay elected. The pressure to take care of those who fill your campaign coffers first is often too hard to resist. It is not hard to see quid pro quo writ large on many pieces of legislation. Candidates who fail to demonstrate the proper loyalty to key economic constituencies will also fail to receive contributions from their PACs or key employees. They can do this by expanding North Carolina's full public financing program from judicial races to include Council of State races, a proposal currently being considered by the legislature.