In the lead-up to the August vote on the Clean Elections ballot initiative in Alaska, the Alaska Public Interest Research Group has released a study confirming our suspicions about the primacy of fundraising in campaigns: generally speaking, the candidate with the most cash wins the race, and once they've won a seat, it's awfully hard to beat them.

Jeff Milchen of Reclaim Democracy attacks the foundations of both the Buckley v. Valeo decision, and the most recent ruling from the Supreme Court building on the Buckley precedent in this op-ed for the Baltimore Sun that makes a compelling argument about the dangers of protecting money's "speech" role in elections ahead of actual speech.

Analysis is trickling in about the impact the Supreme Court's recent decision on the Millionaire's Amendment will have on the "rescue funds" provision of existing and future Clean Elections laws.

The Federal Election Commission is just about back in business following a months-long stalemate over the nomination of Hans von Spakovsky for one of the open seats on the Commission. Von Spakovsky later withdrew his name from the nomination process. With the confirmation of three Republicans and two Democrats by the Senate, the FEC will now have quorum to issue binding decisions.

Public Campaign President Nick Nyhart and West Virginia Citizen Action's Gary Zuckett co-author this op-ed for the Charleston Gazette on the difference between campaign rhetoric about reaching out to ordinary voters and the reality of how the chase for campaign cash drives candidate schedules, and warps the story candidates hear on the trail about the realities and concerns of average Americans.

On the campaign finance disclosure front a couple of states are looking to close some loopholes.  In California new ethics rules will require an explanation for luxury purchases made with campaign funds to ensure they're necessary for the candidate to do his or her job.  Meanwhile, Utah is looking to clear up a worrying feature of their electronic campaign finance filing system that lets campaign edit and delete entries at will, with no record of it having been done.