Concerning the Fair Elections Now Act, July 8, 2010

Election and campaign finance reform are the most critical priorities there are: without fixing the system and its incentives, the outcome of the process will never change. As things stand today, money is the essential ingredient in any campaign, to such an extent that parties are constrained to recruit people who have (a) existing name recognition, (b) independent wealth and/or (c) the ability to raise large sums of money from others. Except (to some degree) in respect of (a), this systematically favors those with concentrated wealth, who effectively purchase public goods, in an implicit but pervasive fashion, with their contributions (or at a minimum block matters that contravene their economic interests using the extremely conservative structures of our legislative system).

This bill doesn't go nearly all the way but it's a start. For more details:
http://www­.publicamp­aign.org/f­air-electi­ons-now-su­mmary