Calling Clean Elections a "bargain," the Washington Post writes in support of full public financing for Maryland elections, a proposal with support from Maryland's Governor and House of Representatives and which is being debated by the Senate.

As supporters head to Maryland's State Capitol today to lobby their legislators to pass Clean Elections in Maryland, Sean Dobson, the acting director of Progressive Maryland, writes in The Gazette about the opportunities Clean Elections will provide Maryland, and the importance of the state Senate joining the House and Governor Martin O'Malley in support of Clean Elections.

The campaign for winning Clean Elections in Maryland depends on a grassroots organizing effort. It cannot win without the citizens of Maryland taking a stand and getting involved in the effort. It’s about citizens choosing to take responsibility for making a necessary change here in Maryland! So what really goes on in a grassroots campaign?

I spent last night volunteering at a grassroots phone bank in the offices of Progressive Maryland, the organization that is leading the fight to pass a Clean Money/Clean Elections measure through the Maryland legislature. The callers were dedicated and relentless, working through list upon list of members, mobilizing people in key State Senate districts. The response was terrific!

Last Monday, volunteers got together at Progressive Maryland’s Silver Spring office to call Maryland residents urging them to contact their Senators in this campaign to win Clean Elections in Maryland. So, what goes on at a phone bank anyway?

Joel Barkin, the executive director of the Progressive States Network writes today in the Baltimore Sun that the growing influence of big industry lobbyists is not just a concern inside the Beltway, business interests are beefing up their state-level lobbyists as well to beat back policies that might cost them money. What to do? Work for public financing in of elections in your state, for one.

Support for Clean Elections in the Maryland legislature is at an all time high, but we need your help to make Clean Elections in Maryland a reality.

Local press is taking an interest in who is signing the Voters First Pledge. The Charlotte Sun-Herald looks at Florida activists working to get candidates to sign on, and The Capital (see the second section) highlights the Maryland candidates who have pledge to put voters first.

The Maryland House of Delegates yesterday approved bill, by a 79 to 56 vote, to provide full public financing for candidates for legislative office in that state, reports the Baltimore Sun. The law would take effect for the 2010 elections.

The Washington Post editorializes this morning in favor of comprehensive public financing with spending limits for state races in Maryland. While you may think this has nothing to do with Tom DeLay (frankly, on the surface it doesn't), it has everything to do with the kind of big money politics practiced by DeLay and far too many other political leaders. Read the editorial here.