Speaking of North Carolina, Chapel Hill may become the state's first municipality to offer a full public financing option for city council races. The state legislature has approved the idea, now the council is debating it. Cities like Portland, Oregon and Albuquerque, New Mexico offer a full public financing option and officials in more cities (like Los Angeles and New York) are proposing similar programs as the cost of running for office goes up and closes more people out.

From the Raleigh News and Observer this morning an editorial lauding the state's existing public financing programs for campaigns in the state and encouraging further expansion of these programs as fast as possible.

For those of you in New York City, especially those of you in and around Queens -- there will be a Clean Elections panel discussion tomorrow, Thursday May 15th at 7pm at All Saints Church to discuss how campaign finance, Clean Elections, and the movement for social justice are related. Citizen Action of New York and the West Queens Independent Democratic Club are co-hosting, with the help of several other groups.