“Gov. Gregoire’s announcement Tuesday that she will champion a pilot project for public financing of judicial elections is an important step in removing the undue influence of special interest money on Washington’s judicial elections. Public financing of judicial campaigns allows candidates and sitting judges to seek office without courting contributions from parties to the cases that come before them.

“As Washington’s former Attorney General, Gregoire has extensive experience with the ins and outs of the state’s court system and understands the importance of a judiciary not dependent on money from solicitors of the courts. With public financing of judicial campaigns, voters can have faith that the men and women on the bench make their rulings without being under the influence of campaign donations.

“Publicly financed elections level the playing field by making elected officials accountable to voters, not major campaign donors. With a public financing option, judicial candidates can run for office on their strength of their record and their ideas, not size of their campaign war chest.

“We hope that the Washington legislature will follow Governor Gregoire’s lead and work to pass this important pilot project in 2007 which will help restore faith in the judicial system.”

Clean Elections, or publicly financed elections, is a practical proven reform that has been in place for statewide and legislative races in Maine and Arizona since 2000 and for judicial races in North Carolina since 2004. Four other states and two cities have adopted Clean Elections for all or some of their races: Connecticut; New Jersey; New Mexico; Vermont; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Portland, Oregon.

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Public Campaign is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to sweeping reform that aims to dramatically reduce the role of big special interest money in American politics. For more information, go to www.publicampaign.org.