A ceramic artist by training, Arizona Senator Meg Burton Cahill (D-AZ) has extended her crafting skills far beyond a college art studio to the hotbed of public-policy making in the Arizona state legislature. Her passion for community politics matured after she completed a Masters in Public Administration, and with the advent of the Clean Elections system in Arizona, she decided the time had finally come for her to run for office.

Rep. David Lujan (D-AZ) was always fascinated by the legislative process and worked behind the scenes for years. In 2002 he was elected to the Phoenix Union School Board which began his career as a public servant. In 2004, Lujan decided to run for the state legislature - and he decided to use the state's Clean Elections system to run.

In this guest piece for the Hawaii Reporter, Todd Lange of the Arizona Citizens Clean Election Commission takes on disinformation about Clean Elections presented in a recent editorial by the Center for Responsive Politics. The result is a nice summary of the successes of Arizona's public financing program, and a good argument for the Hawaii legislature to continue to pursue a pilot program of full public financing for county council races -- a proposal that's recently hit a few roadblocks.

Are you an Arizona resident?  Have you given a $5 qualifying contribution to a candidate who ran with Clean Elections public financing? If so, I'd like to talk with you.  Public Campaign is completing a study on Arizona's Clean Elections system and as part of the study we'd like to interview $5 donors about their experience with the system.  If you're interested, you can contact me at kschlieper (at) publicampaign (dot) org, or leave a comment on this post with the best way to reach you.  The interview will be quick and painless.

Eric Ehst, the Executive Director of Arizona's Clean Elections Institute has this letter in SitNews refuting arguments against a potential Alaska Clean Elections law. He parses a lot of the statistics that get thrown around in the debate over Clean Elections, which is useful information for public financing supporters, especially Alaskans who will be campaigning for this through August.

Arizona was one of the first states in the country to pass a Clean Elections law so University of Arizona student Matt Styer knows what of he speaks in this opinion piece in the Arizona Daily Wildcat advocating a move towards public financing of elections at the federal level.