"There is no doubt in my mind that the substance of the campaign finance debate has reached the turning point," says Michael Malbin, executive director of the Campaign Finance Institute. He was one of several panel members at a money-in-politics conference convened last week by the Brennan Center for Justice. Freshman Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, who gave the opening remarks, noted her state has been lauded for establishing an effective public financing system. But, she said, running for federal office was a demoralizing "dialing for dollars" exercise: "I learned firsthand that to fund-raise you must set up a telemarketing operation. This doesn't seem to me like any way to run a democracy."

Other attendees included Norm Eisen, special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform, and the Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., president of the Hip Hop Caucus. Yearwood explicitly promoted the Fair Elections Act, legislation that would reform campaign finance to create matching payments for qualified small-dollar contributions, among other things.

                                                                                                           -- Eliza Krigman