The Anchorage Daily News reports on the conflicting ballot initiatives Alaskans will be asked to vote on this year, and in 2010, that deal with corruption and campaign finance in the state. First up is the Clean Elections Initiative to publicly fund state elections, which will be on the ballot in August -- then in 2010 the "Anti-Corruption Initiative" might be on the ballot, and it would outlaw public financing of campaigns. Drama!

This is going to be a voter-education priority for Clean Elections supporters in Alaska. The Daily News reiterates their support for Clean Elections, and says that putting the Anti-Corruption Initiative up against it is a "mistake:"

We hope his committee is open to change, because the Clean Elections Initiative is well-vetted and based on successful public-financing programs in Arizona, Maine and other states. For candidates, it's a voluntary program that preserves the cherished Libertarian notion of individual choice. No candidate would be forced to accept public financing, but any candidate with at least a modest base of serious support could run on more than a shoestring and a prayer. That means voters would have a wider range of choices.

If Alaskans passed the Clean Elections Initiative in August 2008, they could find themselves being asked to repeal it in 2010 in the Anti-Corruption Initiative, before clean elections really had a chance to succeed or fail in Alaska.

That makes no sense.

The Clean Elections Initiative gives us a fighting chance to improve the way we do electoral business in Alaska. The Anti-Corruption Initiative's ban on public financing works against that. Come August, let's vote for the anti-corruption force of Clean Elections.

Both inititative campaigns have at their root a desire to address the rampant corruption in Alaska politics that has dominated news headlines for the last year.