"Public funding of elections helps free candidates and elected officials from endless fundraising, allowing them to focus on policy-making and constituent concerns," said longtime public financing advocate and Doris "Granny D" Haddock. The Citizen Funded Elections Task Force will make an initial report to the Legislature next month and a final report in 2010, in time for legislation to be filed for the 2011 session. The task force is scheduled to meet again Oct. 27. Meetings are open to the public.

Aside from the amount of time spent shaking the money tree instead of learning about policy or working for constituents, there's the small matter of where that money comes from. "You can see how no matter what the circumstance," Larson said, "no matter how much you follow the letter of the law, you can see how easy it is to draw a bright line from a donor to a member to something that passed in Congress and say, 'Aha!'" Indeed -- and there's plenty to say "Aha!" about, like the House and Senate appropriations committees and defense pork or Blue Dog Democrats and their health care stance.

Infographic displaying percentage of donations received by Finance, Insurance, and Real Eastate sectors by House Financial Services Committee Members

Certainly, minor parties have played an important role in our state. Some minority party candidates offer new ideas and a refreshing change in leadership as compared to the entrenched partisanship of the major parties; they deserve an equal chance to participate in the political process. At the same time, the overall benefits of this law are so substantial that we all suffer from this ruling. The major provisions of this law must be preserved and we applaud the attorney general’s request for a stay that would give the Legislature time to amend its stance on minority candidates.

Read this, and weep. Understand that unless the current campaign finance and lobbying systems are demolished—not deftly “reformed”—few public aspirations can survive being smothered by cold cash.