The candidates are General Wesley Clark, Governor Howard Dean, Senator John Kerry, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Senator Joe Lieberman, and Ambassador Carol Moseley-Braun. Sen. John Edwards, who does not sign pledges, has committed to the pledge's principles.

The Presidential Candidate's Pledge to Reduce the Role of Special Interest Money in Presidential Elections was drafted by six national reform organizations: Common Cause, Democracy 21, League of Women Voters, Public Campaign Action Fund, Public Citizen and USPIRG. These groups have formed the Presidential Public Financing Reform Project to promote major improvements to the presidential campaign finance system by reducing the role of special interest money in presidential elections, increasing the importance of public financing in the primaries, and making enactment of reforms a priority for the presidential candidates and for Congress.

Leaders of these organizations announced the presidential candidates' endorsements of the pledge at a press conference near Boston's Faneuil Hall, where the Democratic candidates were gathering for a CNN/America Rocks the Vote forum.

Of the three major presidential candidates who did not sign the pledge, the Reverend Al Sharpton had not responded as of press time; Rep. Richard Gephardt declined to endorse the Pledge, and his campaign said he would issue its own press release on the matter; and President George W. Bush's campaign said that he was "committed to campaign finance reform" and that once his team was in place it would reply more directly.

The six national reform organizations in the Presidential Public Financing Reform Project thanked the seven presidential candidates who signed the Pledge for their support. They also promised to "fire up their members across the country and make sure they bird-dog the candidates, asking them about the Pledge and letting them know that fixing the presidential campaign finance system and ending the sale of the White House to the highest bidders is of great importance to the American people." The reform groups are also asking members of Congress to sign the Pledge, committing them to supporting legislation overhauling the system.

Statement of Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer At Press Conference Announcing National Campaign To Fix the Presidential Public Financing System

Democracy 21 is pleased to join with the other organizations here today to announce a national campaign to fix the presidential public financing system and to release the results of our request that presidential candidates pledge to promptly undertake an effort to fix this system if elected.

The presidential financing system has served the nation well since it was established in 1974.

Every president of the United States elected from 1976 to 2000, including Republicans who won four elections and Democrats who won three elections, has run his general election under the public financing and spending limits system. And in all but one case, President George W. Bush's 2000 nomination race, every major party nominee for the general election has used the presidential primary public financing system.

The presidential financing system, furthermore, has provided the opportunity for competitive elections. In fact, challengers have won three of the five races that have been run under the system involving an incumbent president.

But soft money abuses which exploded in the 1990s severely undermined the presidential system's effectiveness and credibility, and major changes since 1976 in the presidential primary process have rendered the presidential financing system out of sync with the primary process.

In addition, there has been no real opportunity since the presidential public financing system was created in 1974 to make the structural corrections and changes that are naturally required over time to deal with problems that develop in any law.

Passage of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 addressed the soft money problem. But other problems also need to be addressed in order to renew and revitalize the presidential financing system.

These include the financing problems caused by "frontloading" the primaries to the beginning months of the nominating process and the need for candidates to have access to more public funds to conduct their primary campaigns and to be able to obtain these funds earlier in the process.

The problems also include the need to ensure that presidential candidates who enter into the public financing system for the primaries and for the general election are able to run competitive races against candidates who opt out of the system in order to spend large amounts of privately raised funds or their own personal wealth.

The presidential public financing system is essential to keeping the presidency off the special interest auction block and allowing serious candidates to run financially competitive races for the presidency.

The choice we face now is a clear one: fix this system for the 2008 presidential election or risk losing it for the future.