Campaign Finance/Fair Elections Public financing for presidential candidates may end The House of Representatives voted yesterday, mainly on party lines, to repeal the presidential financing system. Good quote from Rep. Lynn Woolsey during the floor debate: “Keeping with the spirit of secrecy and lack of transparency, it’s somehow fitting that this bill comes to the floor without any hearings, without any committee referral, without any debate or deliberation.” House votes to end public financing of presidential campaigns If you’d prefer to read instead of listen. And good quote from Public Campaign Action Fund’s David Donnelly: "This stunt isn't about cutting costs--it's about giving special interests more power in Washington, D.C. Instead of focusing on jobs and the economy, the Republican leadership wants to move away from elections of, by, and for the people, and towards elections bought and paid for by corporate donors."

• WSJ: http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2011/01/26/house-to-vote-on-ending-public-campaign-funding/
• Schumer: “This is an attempt to finish the job that the Supreme Court started with the Citizens United decision”: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/140537-schumer-gop-trying-to-finish-the-job-that-citizens-united-started

Effect of House GOP’s anti-campaign-financing bill would be felt by Republicans Awesome point from Dan Eggen: “The irony is that the bill's most immediate effect would be felt by Republicans - including those connected to the tea party movement - who might find it difficult to mount a credible primary run without public funding.” Sen. McConnell’s history of opposition McConnell introduced companion legislation to repeal the presidential public financing system in the upper chamber. Here’s a history of the favors he’s done for campaign donors during his time in Congress. Congress House ethics committee clears 3 of conflict of interest In news that’s absolutely no surprise to anyone, the House ethics committee cleared the rest of the members that had been under investigation for fundraising around the House debate on financial reform. One of the lawyers: “And coincidence or temporal proximity is not enough to establish wrongdoing. There has to be a real connection.” It’s what’s legal...

• Here’s the full report: http://ethics.house.gov/Media/PDF/Wall%20Street%20Bill%20Report_Final.pdf (it’s massive, just an fyi)

Koch Conference under scrutiny The Koch Brother will hold their meeting of wealthy donors this weekend, but this year Common Cause and others will be outside the Palm Springs event protesting. Rep. Issa: Obama “feigns perfection” without achieve it on lobbying rules Rep. Issa rebuffed Obama’s call for more lobbying transparency by Congress in the State of the Union. Financial Crisis was avoidable, inquiry concludes The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission will release its report today—and it finds the crisis was avoidable. Key point for our work: “The report could reignite debate over the influence of Wall Street; it says regulators ‘lacked the political will’ to scrutinize and hold accountable the institutions they were supposed to oversee. The financial industry spent $2.7 billion on lobbying from 1999 to 2008, while individuals and committees affiliated with it made more than $1 billion in campaign contributions.” Senate Democrats drop campaign to limit filibuster The rules changes this year will be limited. “Under the agreement being negotiated among Senate leaders, the ability of lawmakers to halt votes on bills and nominations through anonymous objections would be limited. In addition, senators would not be able to consume time by requiring the reading of lengthy amendments if they had been publicly available for sufficient time.” Final Abramoff-related trial kicks off The last trial related to the Jack Abramoff scandal starts today. Other Actor Richard Dreyfuss takes on civics crisis Dreyfuss on Citizens United: “To have done that thing, which so distorts our entire society as to allow money to be the major value in politics and its communicative  value to the public, is a shame, it is a true shame on the country,  because it so much strengthens the disconnect that we must all feel for  one another either by sector or by individual.” Campaign finance reform studies Even the town of Milpitas, CA is looking at campaign reform! Cutting the campaign cash: New York’s best chance for reform This piece from the Drum Major Institute calls on NY to pass Voter-Owned elections. - Here’s a round up from our blog on recent developments in NY: http://campaignmoney.org/blog/2011/01/26/update-new-york