Today, as candidates for the House and Senate submit their third quarter fundraising reports filled with record breaking numbers, it's time to ask these people to sign the Voters First Pledge to put voters, not big campaign donors, first in the political process.

Want to see where the candidates running to represent you in Congress stand on a Fair Elections system of full public financing for congressional campaigns?  Visit our new and improved Voters First Pledge website that lets you search by state, party, or position on public financing to find out whether the people who want your vote are ready to get big money out of politics.  Visit the site and find out where the candidates stand!

Public Campaign Action Fund's Executive Director Nick Nyhart reflects on the study of small donors by the Campaign Finance Institute in this piece for the Huffington Post.  As the hype about small donation in the presidential race fails to cut in to big donors influence in congressional races, the best hope to put the balance of power in the hands of small donors remains full public financing of elections, which is what we're asking candidates for Congress to show their support for via the Voters First Pledge.

Hey, Maine's District 1, stop hogging the Clean Elections supporters! Seriously though, we put out a statement today on the high level of support for the Voters First Pledge, and full public financing of campaigns, among congressional candidates in the district in the wake of a dust-up between two candidates -- both supportive of Clean Elections -- over campaign fundraising. Read more about what's going on here.

Two years ago as President of Common Cause Chellie Pingree was asking candidates to sign the Voters First Pledge and commit to supporting full public financing of congressional campaigns. Now, as a candidate for Congress from Maine, where Clean Elections was passed in 1996, Pingree is signing on to Public Campaign Action Fund's 2008 Voters First Pledge. We look forward to seeing many more candidates take this pledge.

NPR's Marketplace did a story last night on the loophole that allows lobbyists to fund lawmaker getaways to exotic locales by calling the trip a fundraiser and funneling the lobbyist money through the lawmaker's political action committee (PAC). Of particularl interest to Marketplace are the travel plans of House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), who campaigned last year on cleaning up corruption.