Wow, West Virginia's Charleston Daily Mail is becoming the latest sounding board for Clean Elections. Following a negative editorial on public financing we saw Carol Warren's editorial yesterday, now a letter from Craig Dunkerley of San Jose, CA in today's edition. The letter , which praises Clean Elections is available here (fourth down) and in it's entirety after the jump.

This was clearly the weekend to write about Clean Elections! Papers in Iowa, Alaska, and Tennessee featured positive letters or editorials in support of public financing of campaigns -- we're sooo trendy.

New Jersey's Courier-News profiled Public Campaign Action Fund's David Donnelly this weekend. The article talks about what drew Donnelly to his work, which includes having managed the winning Maine and Massachusetts Clean Elections campaigns, and having developed innovative efforts to hold Tom DeLay and Ralph Reed accountable.

Having seen the corrosive effects of political fundraising first-hand, Donnelly saw the promise in a Clean Elections alternative:

The occasion of John Edwards' decision to use public financing for his presidential bid, and the subsequent chin-wagging about what a risk this is, prompts USA Today to express displeasure that the public financing program has fallen behind the times, and to urge the federal government to take a cue from the states and move towards a Clean Elections model for presidential races.

As Katie described earlier in the week, Norman Hsu has been into some trouble lately. And while the authorities couldn't find him, campaign fundraisers had no problem.

Public Campaign President and CEO Nick Nyhart appeared on Your World with Neil Cavuto yesterday afternoon to talk about the Norman Hsu controversy--and the alternative to this kind of "raise money first, ask questions later" political process. Check it out!

New Yorkers, where will you be on September 17th? At a Clean Elections event hosted by the Drum Major Institute of course! Find out more about this free event, hosted at the Harvard Club from 8AM to 10AM, here and be sure to RSVP.

Eleven New Jersey officials were arrested today in connection with a sprawling bribery investigation of roofing and insurance contracts. Several councilmen, mayors, Assemblymembers, and school board members are implicated in the the investigation.

Here, courtesy of NJ.com is a list of those officials charged with accepting bribes in exchange for exerting influence over public contracts, and how much each is alleged to have received:

Connecticut's Journal-Inquirer looks at the work ahead for Connecticut's State Elections Enforcement Commission as they move towards to the first cycle of state elections under the new full public financing system.

Tom Hester at Newsday notes that New Jersey's efforts to fight political corruption are starting to bear fruit with this year's successful Clean Elections pilot program. He places New Jersey's advances in the context of broader national momentum behind public financing by mentioning North Carolina's recent expansion of its public financing system to include some Council of State races, and Alaska's efforts behind a ballot initiative.

Alaska State Rep. Berta Gardner takes exception to allegations that the proposed Clean Elections program for state has a bias towards the left side of the aisle, making the point in this Anchorage Daily News editorial that concern over the excessive influence of money in politics transcends party boundaries among voters.

If you want to talk about the cost of public financing, writes Gardner, let's first talk about what the current system with all its boondoggles costs voters: