In mid-October, the New York Times reported that a mere 158 families had contributed a total of $176 million to the upcoming presidential campaign—nearly half of the money spent in the election up to that point, and a prime example of how special interests have come to dominate U.S. politics. That's why what happened in Maine in the November 2015 election matters.

By a 10 percent margin, voters approved a measure to strengthen the state's Clean Election Act. Passed in 1996, that legislation provided public financing for candidates in place of private donations, but a slew of recent decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court had stripped away much of its funding. November's Accountable Elections Referendum rectified that by mandating that the legislature find new sources of funding for public financing. It also requires political ads to disclose a campaign's top three donors.

Graphic by iStockphoto/roccomontoya