Didn't see this before: AZ Clean Elections Law - Under Fire?

[secretshopper]

Howdy All,

I don't follow the Grand Canyon State all that closely after my shoes melted on a business trip to the Vallety of the Sun, but Jim Hightower highlighted a group fighting the good fight to keep elections clean. Any Arizonans have any thoughts on this?
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From http://www.jimhightower.com/air/read.asp?id=11461
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Well, gird yourself, for an amendment that (gives corporations a constitutional right to buy our government with their big-money donations to politicians) has been proposed – not in Washington, but in Arizona. This is one of six states where voters have approved Clean Election laws that provide public funds for candidates who agree to accept no special-interest money. Not only is this public alternative popular with candidates of all political parties – since they no longer have to spend endless hours kissing corporate butts to be able to run for office – but it also works. In Arizona, for example, nine of the eleven statewide officials (including the governor) and a third of the legislature have been elected without the taking a dime from the corporate powers, thus owing nothing to them.

This has, of course, infuriated the old power clique, which is used to buying these officials and running things. So assorted corporate interests have put up hundreds of thousands of dollars to put a constitutional amendment on the Arizona ballot this fall that bans the use of public funds for Clean Elections, forcing the state back to the bad ol' days of corporate-funded and corporate-controlled politicians.

The people of Arizona, however, are fighting back with a "Keep It Clean" campaign to defeat this Big-Money power grab – and they need our help. To battle the $10,000 and $20,000 checks that all of the corporate fat cats are putting up, they need us alley cats from all over America to chip in $5 each to keep Arizona clean. We need to spread clean elections, not kill them, and Arizona is the place for all democracy fighters to take a stand.

Abe Lincoln––who said we should have a government "of, by, and for the people"––is pictured on a $5 bill. To support Abe's ideal, send your own Abe to Arizona. To donate $5, call 602-462-1114.
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To find out more about this fight, check out www.azclean.org

The initial court battles have been in favor of the Clean Elections, but only by a hair. From the Clean Elections site:
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Court decision kills measure to eliminate Clean Elections (August 12, 2004)

Arizona’s Clean Elections system has survived yet another attempt by opponents of public funding to overturn the initiative passed by voters in 1998.   The Arizona Supreme Court upheld a trial judge's ruling that Proposition 106, the so-called "No Taxpayer Money for Politicians" initiative, violated the Arizona Constitution's ban on including more than one subject in a proposed constitutional amendment. The measure will not appear on the November 2004 ballot. The initiative both barred public funding of candidates and deprived the Citizens Clean Elections Commission, the state agency overseeing the system, of funding for its other functions, including voter education and regulating campaign finances.

Backers of the campaign to kill Clean Elections vowed to re-write the measure and try to get it on the 2006 ballot.   They can accomplish this one of two ways:   either by lobbying the state legislature to refer the re-written measure to the ballot with a simple majority vote, or by trying again to secure the signatures necessary to qualify another initiative for the ballot.  

The Clean Elections Institute plans to continue working to promote, protect and defend the Citizens Clean Elections Act from any efforts to harm or eliminate it.   We will also continue educating voters about the law.   If your group is interested in having a member of our speakers' bureau talk about the law, please contact the Institute at 602-840-6633.
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This sounds like something that all 50 states could use. How has it worked in Arizona? Do the candidates walk and talk any differently? Most importantly, have they connected with the voters any better?

Secret Shopper