Dear Editor:

As we celebrate this season of light and giving, I hope all Mainers will join me in thanking voters for the remarkable gift they gave us in November. With the successful initiative to strengthen our state's landmark Clean Election System, disclosure and enforcement requirements are now clear and strong, and small donors are once again central to our public financing system. Maine has led the way so that candidates with support from the communities they represent can now run competitive campaigns for office, even when faced with outside spending and big money interests.

Thanks to the hard work of Maine Citizens for Clean Elections and their collaboration with many other local grassroots groups, the clean elections initiative passed last November by a solid 55 percent, demonstrating how fed up most of us are by big, dark money sloshing around, corrosively and unaccountably, in our political system.

Now, the legislature must listen to the will of the voters and ensure the initiative is full funded and implemented!

Hooray for MCCE and hooray for us, the people...everyday, ordinary and extraordinary people ... who long for a government that is of, by, and for us, the people of this great democracy.

Thank you, MCCE for this best Christmas gift of all ... and a joyful, Happy New Year to all.

Susan Stedman

Westport Island