a former legislator sentenced to prison for taking a bribe and misusing campaign money wants to take advantage of public financing to fund his return to the General Assembly. "We're close. We're very close," Ernest Newton II said last week when asked about collecting the $15,000 in small $5 to $100 contributions necessary to qualify for public financing. A 17-year veteran of the Legislature, Newton was sentenced in February 2006 to five years in federal prison and three years probation for taking a $5,000 bribe to push through a state grant, diverting $40,682 in campaign contributions to himself and...