Mar. 22--Florida's public-finance system for statewide campaigns could be headed to voters for repeal in 2010.

But state legislators are also trying to scale back the cash candidates can tap.

Besides pushing a repeal of the public finance system -- which voters would have to approve in 2010, taking effect after that election -- Sen. Mike Haridopolos, R-Indialantic, has added a new twist: language to scale back the spending lid to pre-2005 levels for the upcoming 2010 election cycle in a companion bill he's pushing.

This fight goes back to 2005, when Republicans ruling the Legislature dramatically weakened Florida's once-heralded public campaign-finance system by boosting the amount of money candidates for governor and other Cabinet offices could raise and still tap taxpayer dollars.

Before then, a candidate for agriculture commissioner would have to limit overall campaign spending to $2million in order to receive matching state funds. A candidate for governor could spend no more than $6million to get the public financing.

But with the price of television commercials and campaign consultants rising, legislators nearly tripled those limits in the 2005 lawmaking session.

That let Charlie Crist raise $19.8 million for his 2006 gubernatorial race, including $3.3 million in public financing. In the 2006 elections, Florida devoted $11.1 million to the campaigns of statewide candidates who still raised tens of millions of their own money from private contributors.

Now with Crist considering a U.S. Senate bid, Haridopolos' bill could force a wide-open field of candidates running for governor, chief financial officer, attorney general and agriculture commissioner to bypass public financing altogether in the approaching election cycle, too. Or, conversely, spend much less, which seems unlikely given the cost of ads in a megastate with 10 TV media markets.

The move was applauded last week by good-government groups Common Cause and the Florida League of Women Voters, even though both oppose the full repeal.

"It's a clear message that we are in a tight budget time," Haridopolos said. "Why should we spend $10 [million] to $12 million to fund campaigns especially when, be it Republicans or Democrats, it seems like neither one of them has a difficult time raising money?"

Rail bill slows Central Florida political activist Doug Guetzloe managed to get a few of his followers to the Capitol last week to butt into the photo-op event that local chamber officials staged to drum up support for the commuter-rail legislation.