In addition to their new Clean Elections program, Connecticut is rolling out a searchable online database of contributions to state candidates. The database, eCRIS is already up for candidates to submit their records electronically (an easier, cheaper method of disclosure), and by April you'll be able to use the search features. Read more about this project here.

Looks like the opponents to more transparent campaign finance disclosures in the Senate have won a round.  A bill that would require Senators to file campaign finance reports electronically, as the House already does, has been bouncing around all year.  Now, an amendment by Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), designed to "poison" the bill, looks to have derailed its progress for the year.

A portion of the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform act may be imperiled; the Supreme Court is set to rule soon on whether the provision forbidding "issue ads" within a certain date of an election will be overturned.

Following this most recent round of elections, Wisconsin is considering stricter disclosure laws for certain issue ad expenditures - those not tied to a particular candidate or committee, but which mention a candidate's name in connection with an issue. There are further reform plans afoot to push for a public financing law.

There is, according to The Washington Post a quick and easy reform that the 109th Congress could pass before it recesses: mandatory electronic filing of Senate campaign finance reports. It would vastly streamline the process by which citizens can find out who's sending which senatorial candidates money, especially in those critical last weeks of a campaign.