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.

With at least 20 Voters First Pledge signers coming in as freshman members of Congress, joining 73 incumbent signers and another 14 incumbents on the record in support of Clean Elections-style public financing of campaigns (and this with several races yet undecided) we are seeing a strong voter mandate for cleaning up Congress. What do you think about the election results?

Even as votes are still being counted in close races around the country, speculation on reforms to counter the high-cost, special-interest dominated election process is being offered up. Writers at both the Chicago Sun-Times and the Winston-Salem Journal cite the Voters First Pledge, its principles and signers, as showing the way forward.