This morning Public Campaign Action Fund's Campaign Money Watch project sent a letter to Mike Huckabee, John McCain, Ron Paul, and Mitt Romney asking them to go on the record promising to do something about the influence of money in our elections, and to support public financing of campaigns.

Thus far in the presidential race we've heard both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton make statements in support of full public financing of campaigns, but we haven't heard much on the subject from the Republican candidates. We asked our members to sign a petition urging the four remaining Republican candidates to take a stand for public financing and over 10,000 of you signed.

Excerpts from the letter courtesy of David Donnelly, Director of Campaign Money Watch:

"Specifically, there is a deafening silence in the Republican primary on the need to overhaul our campaign finance laws to put voters in charge. In the past, you have advocated for a variety of solutions to this problem. Your silence during the current race for the GOP nomination has left many to believe that political expediency has trumped principles when it comes to cleaning up big money in politics.


"Along with these 10,145 signers, I urge you to pledge to support comprehensive public financing of federal elections which will break the stranglehold that big campaign donors have on our political process and to restore hope that the voices of voters can be heard in the corridors of power.


"Voters need to know whether the GOP candidates will stand up and take on big money in politics, or whether they'll refuse to bite the hands that fill their campaign coffers."