Please vote today.  One of the leaders of Sen. John McCain’s run for the presidency said yesterday that the election of 2008 “killed public funding for all time,” according to a story in The New York Times.  McCain’s chief strategist, Steve Schmidt told the Times that “the next Republican presidential campaign, hopefully a re-election for John McCain, will need to be a billion-dollar affair to challenge what the Democrats have accomplished with the use of the Internet and viral marketing to communicate and raise money.”  Please vote today.  There is an alternative to the proposed billion dollar, permanent election campaign where the candidate and his staff spend more time prowling for contributions than seeking insight and input from citizens.  Voters in Arizona, Connecticut and Maine today will choose among hundreds of statehouse and statewide candidates who chose to run under Clean Elections programs. These candidates agreed to limit their spending and devoted their campaign time to discussing the issues with voters.  In Maine and Arizona, these systems have been in place for several election cycles and they keep growing in popularity with both candidates and voters. This is Connecticut’s first general election using Clean Elections and more than 75 percent of candidates are running under the program.  Please vote today.