I really think on this one we're bumping up against some Republican ideology. I'm only somewhat optimistic, reserved in my optimism, that we can reach an agreement.

You clearly did your duty as law enforcement, but the question comes to bear about the interface between emergency preparedness and our first responders locally. We want to make sure there is intercommunication between agencies.

A system was set in place to ensure immediate response and ensured communication between agencies. But observation of the events on Dec. 2 of the evacuations of the courthouses calls much of that into doubt.

We shouldn't underestimate the importance of this issue.

We are not going to pursue the cookie or the fruit this year.

If the public-financing mechanism got knocked out, people could be sitting in the middle of a campaign with public-financing gone and most of the traditional sources are illegal. We'd be in a crisis mode pretty quick.