A proposed ballot measure to effectively dismantle Arizona’s system that provides public money for state election candidates’ campaigns would itself be scrapped under a compromise between the program’s supporters and opponents.

An Arizona judge is dismissing a lawsuit accusing a state agency of illegally spending public money to promote the state’s public campaign finance system.

The Senate today gave preliminary approval to a ballot measure that aims to dismantle the public financing of candidates in elections. Before voters can decide the fate of the public campaign financing system, the measure still needs the full vote of the Senate and must be approved by the House of Representatives.

Opponents of Arizona’s system of publicly financing candidate campaigns secured an important victory Monday, when a panel of lawmakers approved a ballot measure to eliminate it.

An Aug. 31 deadline has been set for applicants for one vacant post on the five-member Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission.

Arizona’s system of public campaign financing has been dealt a major, although expected, blow by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled June 27 that the matching funds provision of the Clean Elections Act is unconstitutional.

Local political consultants and operatives disagree on what effect the U.S. Supreme Court ruling against the matching funds component of Arizona’s public campaign finance option will have on politics.

If voters choose to permanently scrap public financing for campaigns in November 2012, proponents of higher campaign contribution limits may find themselves trying to answer a tricky question: How do you further the intent of a law that no longer exists?

They’re hoping they don’t have to find out.

After years of having nothing to show for their legislative efforts to dismantle Arizona’s public campaign financing system, state business leaders and other opponents of Clean Elections enlisted the help of an unlikely ally.

On April 18, the Senate refered SCR1025 to the 2012 ballot. The success of the measure, which would ask voters to effectively gut Arizona’s embattled 13-year-old public finance system for legislative and statewide office candidates, can largely be attributed to one of Clean Election’s most ardent supporters.

The United States Supreme Court will soon decide just how far a government can wade into electoral politics with the use of public campaign financing, as members of the court on Monday heard arguments from opponents and defenders of Arizona’s public campaign finance system.