Several Presidential candidates are in Silicon Valley this week, trying to drum up support and money.

John Edwards endorsed several of the principles suggested by the Ad Hoc Public Interest Spectrum Coalition, a group of organizations trying to ensure that the FCC's upcoming spectrum auction results in a new, competitive national wireless broadband offering. Basically, the spectrum now used for broadcast TV will be coming available when broadcast TV goes digital, and that spectrum would be particularly good for a national broadband network.

Many groups (rightfully, in my opinion) fear that existing telecom providers will buy the spectrum rights and simply leave them unused in order to protect their existing monopolies, or create new networks that restrict what consumers can do. The coalition has therefore proposed rules to the FCC which would increase the chances of a real alternative being built that is more open than today's networks. A good roundup of the issues is here.

Back to John Edwards: just before speaking at Google last night, Edwards released a letter to the FCC calling for many of the principles suggested by the coalition. As Art Brodsky writes, this is pretty amazing stuff from a Presidential candidate. Way to go, John!