Last month, voters in both Arizona and Massachusetts passed their own versions of that initiative. That's a cute sound bite, but it distorts the issue. Hog feeders, bankers, insurance companies and other special interests don't give to candidates out of the goodness of their hearts. Their money drowns out the voices of ordinary voters. Public campaign financing comes with no strings attached.
Candidates are beholden first and last to the taxpayers.
That's the way it ought to be. The current system for financing campaigns in North Carolina is eroding the integrity of the legislature. It's pushing the cost of campaigning higher with each election, putting public office farther and farther out of the reach of ordinary working people. It's giving special interests greater and greater influence over the political process. Next month, legislators get another chance to change it, and they must not let it pass them by.