Campaign Finance/Fair Elections Q&A: Election law expert Rick Hasen Rick Hasen does an interview with the CJR about “the post-Citizens United landscape, and stories to do now.” The incumbent’s bane: Citizens United and the 2010 election “First Amendment advocate” Brad Smith talks about how awesome Citizens United was for democracy. Bill seeks to kill presidential public-financing system The House will vote Wednesday on whether to repeal the presidential public financing system.

• The Post says this is a bad idea: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/24/AR2011012405601.html
• And more from Mother Jones: http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/01/republican-public-financing-cantor-corporation#

Cuomo’s reform movement Katrina vanden Heuvel writes about efforts to bring a Fair Elections-style system to New York. Public Campaign President Nick Nyhart: “For a state as important as New York—where the entrenched interests are so powerful and the campaigns are big money races—for a state like that to say a solution to dysfunctional government is to end the big campaign money chase, would send a message out everywhere.”

• Related piece from Oneida: http://oneidadispatch.com/articles/2011/01/24/news/doc4d3dcb48726d7416417922.txt
• And Ithaca: http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20110124/NEWS01/101240378/1126/news/N.Y.+groups+push+publicly+financed+campaigns

Congress Darrell Issa vs. Elijah Cummings feud heats up The battle between Reps. Darrell Issa and Elijah Cummings isn’t subject to the “new civility” in Washington. Issa is even sitting with Edolphus Towns tonight, the former chair of the committee he now heads. Rep. David Rivera facing ethics issues “Just three weeks into his congressional career, Rep. David Rivera (R-Fla.) has earned the dubious distinction of being the first member of the historic class of House GOP freshmen to find himself at the center of an ethics scandal.” #change Freshman lawmakers carry on tradition Great piece from Peter Overby this morning, focused on one freshman in particular and the “Washington-ization” of the new class of lawmakers. Independent spending? Who are we kidding? “Thus it is a complete fiction that an independent expenditure is necessarily less corrupting than a direct contribution.  And this fiction has become even more dangerous in a post-Citizens United world.” New members are among richest in Congress “More than one-third of the freshman lawmakers in the 112th Congress are millionaires, and as many as 15 are likely to rank among the richest Members of Congress this year, according to a Roll Call analysis of financial disclosure records.” Other Bush White House broke elections law, report says Non-surprise of the day: “The Bush White House, particularly before the 2006 midterm elections, routinely violated a federal law that prohibits use of federal tax dollars to pay for political activities by creating a “political boiler room” that coordinated Republican campaign activities nationwide, a report issued Monday by an independent federal agency concludes.” Justice Clarence Thomas amends 1997-2009 financial forms After Common Cause raised questions into Justice Thomas’ financial disclosure forms, he submitted amended ones noting his wife’s income.