Supporters of publicly financed elections are using revelations from the State Board of Elections hearings into former Gov. Mike Easley to push their cause.

In publicly financed elections, taxpayer dollars provide candidates with money for advertising and campaigning. To qualify, candidates must demonstrate they have a minimum base of support and must agree to spending limits and restrictions on fundraising.

Municipal elections in Chapel Hill, appellate judge races and some Council of State races use the system. 

That's exactly the type of election the state needs in the wake of revelations that Easley's gubernatorial campaign planned to funnel money through the N.C. Democratic Party to circumvent the state's campaign finance limits, said Chase Foster, director of N.C. Voters for Clean Elections.

"More and more, North Carolina leaders see Voter-Owned Elections as the obvious answer to the rising cost of elections,” Foster said in a news release.

Foster released a scorecard tracking votes on publicly financed elections bills. Foster said the scorecard shows that lawmakers are increasingly supportive of the election changes.

A bill that would create a pilot program for more publicly financed municipal elections cleared the House this year. The Senate approved a bill that would expand the program to more Council of State races.

Opponents to such elections say taxpayers would be forced to fund political speech, and that political contributions would instead be given to special interest groups to spend.

Janet Cowell may no longer be a senator, but she's still interested in legislation.

The Democratic state treasurer is lobbying for at least 11 bills in the General Assembly this session, most of which affect her office:

Investment Risk Reduction: Give treasurer's office more flexibility on types of investments for the state pension fund.

Stimulus Reconciliation: Authorizes state to issue different kinds of debt to take advantage of the federal stimulus package.

Treasurer Transparency: Expands treasurer's Investment Advisory Board and sets a standard for assessing decisions.

Property Protection: Limits amount that businesses or individuals can charge for retrieving property held in escheat by the state.

Public Campaign Financing: Expands public campaign finance program to include state treasurer among other offices.

Electronic Reporting: Requires banks and insurance companies reporting large amount of escheats to use state-approved software.

Data Sharing: Permits N.C. Department of Revenue to share certain tax information with the treasurer's office.

Energy Savings Contracts: Removes the cap on energy saving contracts, requires life-cycle cost analyses of conservation measures, among other things.

Pension Corrections: Makes technical corrections to the statutes covering the pension fund and similar state funds.

Retirement COLAs: Addresses cost-of-living adjustments for retirees under the state pension fund and judicial pension fund.

Fire and Rescue Pension: Increases the monthly payment for members of the Firemen's and Rescue Squad Workers Pension Fund.