After a long delay, the U.S. Supreme Court announced on Friday it would hear an appeal from West Virginia concerning campaign finance and whether a state Supreme Court justice has the responsibility to recuse himself when a campaign contributor is affected.

For years, the West Virginia Supreme Court has been riled by stories of pay-to-play politics and access and influence by wealthy executives. And now, it might go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Reverend Dennis Sparks of the West Virginia Council of Churches wants Clean Elections in his state, and he's pushing hard for what he calls a "Freedom Bill" to make it happen. Read more about his interest and involvement in the West Virginia effort to win full public financing of elections.

Carol Warren and the West Virginia Citizens for Clean Elections are lobbying their legislature to implement a Clean Elections program for state legislative races. This story in the Charleston Gazette describes their efforts, steady progress toward victory, and the particular program they have outlined.

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.

Here's how Carol Warren's opinion piece in the Charleston Daily Mail begins: "I love it when people tell me, 'I don't want my tax dollars paying for politicians' campaigns.' That means I get to ask them the real question: 'Who do you want to pay for them, then?"  And it only gets better from there.  Go read it, she hits the nail on the head hard enough to crack it.