Clean Elections reform is a proven, practical reform. To date, seven states and two municipalities have passed Clean Elections laws. In the three states where the law has been implemented, the system has been met with great success.

Candidates who participate in Clean Elections are supported by voters. In the Maine legislature, 83 percent of the state Senate and 84 percent of the state House is made up of legislators that ran as Clean Elections candidates. In Arizona, 9 out of 11 statewide offices are held by Clean Elections candidates, including Governor Janet Napolitano. In addition, 30 percent of the Arizona state Senate and 48 percent of the state House were elected using public financing. North Carolina implemented Clean Elections for judicial races for the first time in 2004. In 2006, three of the four seats up for election on the seven-member Supreme Court and both of the seats filled on the 15-member Court of Appeals will be held by judges who ran with public funding.

Not only do voters in these states support public financing of state lawmakers, but voters across the country overwhelming support a system of Clean Elections at the federal level. In recent polling, 74 percent of likely voters nationwide support public funding for campaigns. Moreover, support for public financing crosses party lines and demographics. Eighty percent of Democrats, 78 percent of Independents, and 65 percent of Republicans support this reform. Across gender lines, age groups, and regionally, this reform is supported by no less than 60 percent, and in most cases around three-quarters of voters polled.

Voters believe positive changes would come from publicly financed elections. Eighty-two percent of voters believe it is likely, as a result of publicly financed elections, that candidates will win on their ideas, not because of the money they raise, and 81 percent believe it is likely politicians will be more accountable to voters instead of large contributors.

Polling numbers based on a telephone survey of 1,000 likely 2006 voters nationwide, conducted June 8-15, 2006 by Lake Research and Bellwether Research. The margin of sampling error is +/-3.1 percent. The survey was conducted for Public Campaign Action Fund and Common Cause.