Does the Clean Elections effort have the Big Mo?  The big mo is momentum and there has certainly been an up tick of stories about Clean Elections efforts nationwide with papers and their online outlets publishing reasoned and supportive reviews.  Yesterday, the San Jose Mercury News published an editorial praising California Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, (D-El Cerrito), and the California Clean Money Campaign for a bill that would create a trial run Clean Elections program for the Secretary of State office in 2014 and 2018. The legislature passed and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Hancock’s proposal and now voters must approve the concept in a referendum scheduled for June 2010.  The Mercury News gives the concept a nice plug and suggests voters consider expanding it.   “Public financing will be voluntary and modeled after financing systems in Arizona and Maine, where it has worked well to encourage more candidates to run for office and to reduce the role of big-monied interests. Secretary of state candidates who gather $5 contributions from 7,500 voters can forgo private donations in exchange for $900,000 in public money for their primary and general election campaigns. An annual $350 fee on state lobbyists, who nearly killed the bill, would fund the campaigns.  If the pilot works — and we think it will — voters should consider expanding public financing to the Legislature and statewide offices.”  Formidable challenges face those working to expand Clean Elections programs beyond the seven states and two cities where it has been adopted. Still, there are activists nationwide fighting for returning political power to the voters. The Big Mo is on our side.