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political donations — is the only protection against the corrosive effects of corruption. The desire — even the expectation — of such public servants might seem Quixotic in this cynical age of cronyism and venality, but it is an expectation resonant with the desires of our nation's Founders. The first step in achieving this superior gover- nance locally is to amend the county charter to make all county offices nonpartisan, remov- ing the exclusionary nature of closed party primaries from the selection process for the best qualified candidates. The next move should be to establish public financing of county races, cutting off the out- sized influence of wealthy donors. Finally, and most important, the voters must want honest and effective leaders enough to support their candidacies and vote for them in elections. The corrupting influence of big money donors in local political offices has made a mockery of our democratic processes and imperiled the economic future of the county. We hope the collective outrage of the electorate will fuel an eventual end to this irretrievably bro- ken system. % LETTERS TO THE EDITOR T h e S a r a s o t a N e w s L e a d - er welcomes letters to the editor from its readers. Let- ters should be no more than 300 words in length, and include the name, street address and telephone number of the writer. Letters should be emailed to Letters@SarasotaNewsLeader.com, with "Letter to the Editor" in the subject line. Letters actually printed will be selected based on space available, subject matter and other factors. We reserve the right to edit any letters submitted for length, gram- mar, spelling, etc. All letters submitted be- come the property of The Sarasota News Leader. Search for text in stories by clicking the icon in the menubar and entering a search term. Search the current edition or all editions. QUICK TIP Search Only The Issue You Are Viewing Search All Issues Your search term here OPINION Sarasota News Leader June 13, 2014 Page 101