A congressional committee is considering a public campaign funding proposal, similar to Maine's.  Maine Congressman Chellie Pingree, a First District Democrat, testified on behalf of the bill she co-sponsored with two other congressmen.

Pingree told a Washington hearing today how she spent up to 20 hours a day in her unsuccessful, 2000 bid for the Senate, making fundraising phone calls.  Then she talked about her daughter, Hannah, who ran for the Maine House that year using Maine's clean-election system funding.  "And then you know what she did while I was sitting in that little white room?  She knocked on doors.  She went to the fish pier. She went to the grocery store.  She talked to all those people who never thought they would meet a politician or participate in a campaign.  And she is fond of reminding me she won that campaign."

Hannah Pingree will testify before the Committee on House Administration this afternoon.   The co-sponsors on Pingree's bill are Connecticut Democratic Congressman John Larson and North Carolina Republican Walter Jones.