Speaking of North Carolina, Chapel Hill may become the state's first municipality to offer a full public financing option for city council races. The state legislature has approved the idea, now the council is debating it. Cities like Portland, Oregon and Albuquerque, New Mexico offer a full public financing option and officials in more cities (like Los Angeles and New York) are proposing similar programs as the cost of running for office goes up and closes more people out.

The article in the Independent Weekly starts out with a telling anecdote about the cost of running for office.

Chapel Hill Town Councilwoman Sally Greene was attending a meeting of the Public Housing Program Advisory Board last summer when a board member, perusing the list of council members' names on the agenda, told Greene, "I'd like to see my name there."

"I told her how to run a campaign and wished her luck," Greene says of the woman, who lived in public housing. "She didn't file. She probably doesn't have the resources—or the perception that she doesn't—to run for office."

That political hopeful might be able to run next year if the council approves a pilot program for publicly financed elections.

In Chapel Hill most candidates self-finance and campaigns cost several thousand dollars. That's out of reach for many people -- should personal wealth determine whether you can run for public office? Let's hope the city council approves this and takes away that barrier to public service.