This story illustrates just how fed up Americans are with the way campaigns are financed. Before a candidate even takes office he or she is deeply obligated to monied contributors--which seriously affects how they will govern. If democracy is to ever be truly of and for the people, it's essential campaign financing be reformed to get special interests out of it.

The survey is important background. The question about publicly financed elections is particularly interesting, but perhaps is handicapped in the survey by not having been explained and presented to many of the survey respondents. Follow-on questions on the question of publicly financed elections might be "Are you familiar with how publicly financed elections would work?" or "Have you heard about the successful publicly financed elections in various states and cities?" (Clean ... More »

this poll shows another disconnect between the people of this country and their elected representatives. follow-up pieces interviewing both democratic and republican candidates for offices regarding this information could be informative.