What would we call it if a baseball player gave the umpire a $25,000 check before sliding into home plate? What would we call it if a lawyer offered a judge a similar payment before he announced his verdict? What do we call it when a lobbyist gives a public official such a check before he makes the public policy that shapes the context of our lives?

This November, we have a proposition on the ballot that offers fundamental change to the system of legalized bribery that has too long passed in this state for representative democracy.

For the first time in California, Proposition 89 would create a system of public campaign financing. Candidates who demonstrate a following with signatures and seed money can choose this system of financing if they agree not to accept private donations or subsidize their own campaigns. This will dramatically reduce the power of corporations that have been able to shape the Sacramento political environment, using money to elect people who owe them something and will keep needing their help -- whether these obligations are ever made explicit or not. Proposition 89 will also further restrict donations to all candidates which will help level the playing field and give candidates an opportunity to listen to voters rather than being rushed from one fundraiser to another.

So I was very concerned by the Register's sweeping and unfounded conclusion that Proposition 89 won't work and that it is not a good way to spend public money.

In fact, Arizona and Maine have had systems of public campaign financing for several years. Eighty percent of people in these states expressed satisfaction with their "clean money" systems in recent polls. They have seen:

* increased voter participation

* steady increases in the number of candidates of all parties having their campaigns publicly financed

* passage of legislation long blocked by corporations

* emergence of a more diverse candidate pool, including many more working-class, female and minority candidates

The California Nurses Association put great effort into getting Proposition 89 on the ballot. Nurses witness the dire consequences of poor public policy when people are at their most vulnerable. We recognize that reversal of our currently unraveling safety net will not happen under the current "pay-to-play" political system.

As a nurse practitioner seeing patients for the last 21 years, it has become painful to provide care to patients forced to choose which medicine is more important because they can't afford them all or to be unable to provide care for familiar patients with complicated medical conditions when they lose their health care coverage.

Proposition 89, like most propositions, has many details. Our current election system is quite complex. There will inevitably be details in this proposition that may seem less than perfect to various voters. Please remember the unrealistic comparison will be between this measure's details and a mythical ideal, rather than the grossly corrupt system now in place.

The law's details can be "fine-tuned" into the future. We must be careful not to let the imaginary perfect become the enemy of the good.

Proposition 89 would be funded by a slight increase on the tax on corporate profits, which will still be lower than it was in 1996. Most small businesses won't pay any tax for this measure. Corporations already spend heavily on campaigns. Now it will be through taxes, rather than by buying politicians' good will. That will mean savings for the state's people much greater than the system's modest cost.

We must no longer allow this conflict of interest in which politicians must pit the desires of the donors who pay their bills against those of the people of California they supposedly represent.

Passing Proposition 89 is the reform that will make other reforms possible. It is a rare chance, in the welter of propositions, to make democracy real. It will give us a political system we won't have to be ashamed to explain honestly to our children. It's time for us to take back our democracy. Vote yes on Proposition 89 in November.

(Hoagland lives in Napa.)