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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (14577)	3/13/2006 6:16:08 AM
From: Dale Baker	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 542946

The likely solution is a number of petitions with a substantial number of valid signatures in a minimum number of states to prove viability as a candidate. You would have to allow private funds for the signature drive, but that would not screen out any serious candidate. Once a candidate crosses the threshold to "viability", then he/she competes on a level financial playing field with the others.

To: Lane3 who wrote (14577)	3/13/2006 10:28:46 AM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542946

I see the attraction of public funding but I'm not about to support anything if I have no idea how it might work. I see the problem, definitely. But we disagree, I gather, on just how large a problem the current way we finance campaigns actually is. I think it's at the root of a great many problems. So, I would evaluate any proposal for public funding against the present alternative. As for the specific question of how aspiring candidates would demonstrate enough support to gain public financing, I suspect there are a variety of answers which could be evaluated against each other and the present system. One would be using the present way many states put initiatives on the ballot, including recall elections. Adherents must gain enough signatures. There would need to be enough provisions in any legislation to let that happen, without corrupting the overall goal of flushing the corruption out of the system. But it's thinkable, perhaps doable. I don't doubt there are other means.