Public Campaign President Nick Nyhart and West Virginia Citizen Action's Gary Zuckett co-author this op-ed for the Charleston Gazette on the difference between campaign rhetoric about reaching out to ordinary voters and the reality of how the chase for campaign cash drives candidate schedules, and warps the story candidates hear on the trail about the realities and concerns of average Americans.

Carol Warren of West Virginia Citizens for Clean Elections notes the state's recent run-ins with scandals and urges the legislature to make passing the West Virginia Public Financing Act a priority in this op-ed for the Charleston Gazette.

According to the Charleston Daily Mail, "spontaneous debate broke out" in the West Virginia Senate today over whether judges should be appointed or elected, and, if elected, whether there should be a Clean Elections option (like the one in North Carolina) to allow judges to run without taking money from attorneys and other interested parties.

Concern over money's infiltration of our electoral process transcends party boundaries as this article in the Register Herald about efforts to pass a Clean Elections bill in West Virginia shows. Democratic and Republican legislators alike know that a full public financing alternative is the best way to put that state on the road to more inclusive elections and better policy.

A West Virginia judge decides in a coal company's favor and then photos surface of that judge on vacation in Monaco with the company's CEO...nothing fishy about that arrangement at all.

The Charleston Gazette, West Virginia's largest circulation newspaper, amends it previous skepticism on the idea of full public financing of elections and tells the legislature the Clean Elections proposal being advanced by a coalition of groups deserves consideration.