The failure of Congress to pass any meaningful financial regulation reform in response to the crisis created by our financial institutions is just one more reminder of the overwhelming and corrosive influence of big money on our political system. The only possible way of reining it in seems to be publicly-financed elections. Public financing gives elected officials the time and motivation to serve the public rather than their donors. This saves much more money than it costs, since it removes the incentive for these officials to lavish taxpayer-financed benefits on their moneyed contributors. Getting the big money out of national elections will take a while, but a number of states, including Maine and Arizona, and cities like Albuquerque, N.M. and Portland, Ore. are leading the way through effective laws enacted at the state and local levels. Now, in 2010, readers of The Beacon have an opportunity to get involved by supporting the California Fair Elections Act and San Diego’s own Neighborhoods for Clean Elections campaign. Those with an interest in improving our electoral system can get the full story on two web sites: http://www.caclean.org for the state measure and http://www.sdcleanelections.org for the local one.