The article in the Baltimore City Paper examines some of the political machinations that are delaying further progress on the Maryland Public Financing Act in the Senate. Senate President Mike Miller's (D) notorious opposition to a Clean Elections public financing program for Maryland has translated into pressure on leadership, and a series of half-baked budget excuses that keep stalling the bill in the Senate.

The Baltimore Sun covers three bits of pending legislation before the Maryland General Assembly, the second of which is the Clean Elections bill that would give legislative candidates the opportunity to run for office with public financing. In particular the paper notes the potential for a public financing program to address low levels of voter participation in the African-American community.

With less than a month remaining to pass Clean Elections legislation in Maryland we're turning up the heat on the Senate, and particularly the leadership, to move the bill out of committee and to the floor for a vote. Yesterday Public Campaign, Progressive Maryland, and Common Cause Maryland convened a press conference at the state capitol to release new polling information, and unveil a new ad campaign targeting money flowing to Maryland legislators from electric utility companies.

As I mentioned yesterday, Public Campaign along with Common Cause and Progressive Maryland released a report yesterday on the correlation between energy deregulation and campaign contributions.

Do you live in Maryland? Are you paying a ridiculously large increase in your energy costs this year? It probably has something to do with the electricity deregulation legislation that passed in 1999.

Ah, zee dangers of merely putting limits on who can give how much to legislative candidates: loopholes loom large. The Washington Post reports on the ways lobbyist money has found around the regulations placed in its path when it comes time to fill the campaign coffers of Maryland candidates.