Eh, well this isn't the best news I've read all day. A U.S. District Judge, Roslyn Silver - taking a page from the Supreme Court's decision on the Millionaire's Amendment - has ruled that the matching funds provision of the Arizona Clean Elections law is unconstitutional. While this has no immediate affect on the distribution of Clean Elections grants in Arizona, it may gum up the works down the road.

The Goldwater Institute, opposed to Clean Elections from the very start, is responsible for the lawsuit that produced this decision. It remains to be seen whether this will impact the distribution of matching funds for Clean Elections candidates in the general election this year.

Unfortunately this does seem to have impacted ongoing efforts on behalf of Clean Elections in New Jersey. State Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts wants to pull the plug on Clean Elections funding in 2009 on the basis of this decision. He wants there to be a "time-out" to work out alternate provisions for the law. While no one wants to make rash decisions about alternatives to matching funds it seems like a bit of a premature surrender to immediately halt the program. Clean Elections in New Jersey is well worth fighting for and both candidates and voters in 2007 like the system -- we need to hold our ground.