Letters in the The Daily Targum and the The Star Ledger both come down strongly in favor of Clean Elections in New Jersey not as a panacea but as a vital component of a electoral system responsive to voters.Phyllis Salowe-Kaye of New Jersey Citizen Action pens the letter below:Clean electionsFriday, September 21, 2007After days of covering New Jersey's latest corruption scandal, in which 11 politicians were snared, it's no wonder that you woke up on the wrong side of the bed ("Election dream world," Sept. 10 editorial). But bashing the clean elections pilot program, part of New Jersey's solution, is the wrong response.Getting special-interest money out of politics can produce officials free to run for office and act without the constraints of those purse strings wielded by private donors and backroom party bosses. We need only look to Maine, where former Senate Majority Leader Chellie Pingree credits a clean elections law for the state's strong prescription drug legislation, or to Arizona, where Gov. Janet Napolitano, America's first clean elections governor, is sued an executive order establishing low-cost prescription discounts. Conversely, New Jersey has balked at proposals to bulk- purchase prescriptions or negotiate prices with drug companies.A clean elections law will not, by itself, eliminate all bad people from politics, just as tougher ethics reforms, while certainly needed, will not create a world free from corruption. But it is cer tainly better than the nightmare we've got now. -- Phyllis Salowe-Kaye, NewarkThe writer is executive direc tor of New Jersey Citizen Action And Michael Shapiro includes a robust Clean Elections program in his "Roadmap for Reform" piece: Second, to lessen the pernicious influence of campaign cash and to enable citizens of ordinary means to have the ability to run for office and win - a fiscally responsible public financing system should be established.