Lots of coverage from yesterday's Maryland Senate committee hearing on the Clean Elections bill. Stories from the Baltimore Sun, The Daily Times, and the Baltimore Examiner quote Clean Elections supporters, the bill sponsor Sen. Paul Pinsky, and Sen. Joan Carter Conway, the chair of the committee before which the bill was heard on the merits of the bill and it's chances for passage.

Public Campaign President Nick Nyhart, and Progressive Maryland Executive Director are both quoted in the Daily Times:

The law would bring "ordinary people" who are not able to donate large sums of money back into the political process, said Nick Nyhart, president and CEO of the advocacy group Public Campaign.

[. . .]

To be eligible for the funding candidates would be required to gather donations of at least $5 from about 350 constituents, plus another $6,750 under existing fundraising rules.


Sean Dobson, executive director of the advocacy group Progressive Maryland, said this system would provide a "double hurdle" and keep all but serious candidates from receiving public funding.

Sen. Joan Carter Conway, chair of the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee which heard the bill yesterday, was a champion of similar legislation introduced last year:

[She] said she supports the measure.

"Maybe we'll win, maybe we won't," she said, noting the opposition of other Senate leaders.

Opposition, sponsoring Senator Paul Pinsky notes, that is working under the same system of private financing, with the same conflicts of interest:

"There is influence, as much as we say there's not," said Sen. Paul G. Pinsky, a Prince George's County Democrat, one of the sponsors of the public campaign finance effort.


He said the public financing option would help eliminate the perception that campaign contributors have undue influence on the political process.

The bill is off to a good start this year -- we'll keep you up to date on what you can do to make it go all the way!