The Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, the state’s leading non-partisan foundation focused at improving state and local government, released results of a survey today on Government Transparency taken by candidates running in this fall’s elections.

“In an era of scarce resources, it is vital that state and local governments be open and transparent to the public in their financial dealings,” said Michael Thompson, president of the Institute. He went on to say “the public needs to be aware of government finances so it can better hold these public institutions and officials accountable.”

All candidates were asked to sign the “2009 Government Transparency Pledge” or, if the campaigns take the position not to sign pledges, to show agreement with this pledge. Here are the results of that survey to the six statewide candidates, Delegate candidates, candidates for the Board of Supervisors and School Board candidates.