Campaign Finance Campaign finance  and lobbying—they’re related Public Campaign President Nick Nyhart has this quick response to Heather Gerken’s pieces on the Election Law Blog this week. OCE gives public window into Congress’ self-policing Public Citizen's Lisa Gilbert has this op-ed today on the ethics office. “Whether or not you believe there was the appearance of a conflict in this case, one undisputed fact is that because of the creation of the OCE, the public now has a crystal-clear window to see for itself the way House Members function when policing themselves.” A reply to the Atlantic’s Wendy Kaminer The Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel responds to a piece in the Atlantic on the impact of Citizens United. “I don’t begrudge Wendy Kaminer her determination to defend the Supreme Court’s wrongheaded decision in the case of Citizens United v. FEC. But I do wish that she would come up with her own arguments for why she thinks the justices were right to allow unlimited contributions from corporate treasuries to flood the electoral landscape.” Congress Koch Brothers’ plan for 2012: spend $88 million “In an expansion of their political footprint, the billionaire Koch brothers plan to contribute and steer a total of $88 million to conservative causes during the 2012 election cycle, according to sources, funding a new voter micro-targeting initiative, grassroots organizing efforts and television advertising campaigns.” #foodfightformillionaires Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas should sit out on health care case, Democrats say ABC picks up the effort by some Democrats to get Justice Thomas to recuse himself due to his wife’s lobbying connections. Chamberleaks: US Chamber’s lobbyists solicited firm to investigate opponents families, children The Chamber decided it might be a good idea to build a dossier on its opponents, including families and children.

• And they were going to try to entrap ThinkProgress and others too: http://thinkprogress.org/2011/02/10/lobbyists-chamberleaks/

Tea Party Express names Snowe as its next moderate Republican target Long-time Fair Elections Republican target Olympia Snowe will get a primary from the right. Tough week leaves majority in confusion, picking up pieces The House majority just can’t get their act together. The pajama party is over, ethics group tells Congress CREW thinks lawmakers shouldn’t be able to sleep in their offices and has filed a complaint “to investigate whether the politicians are getting an unfair tax break and violating their own rules by making personal use of public resources.” Darrell Issa’s office says preventing atrocities cost businesses time and money Rep. Darrell Issa held his first hearing yesterday on ways to drop regulations that “hurt business.” One of those might just be an SEC requirement that companies identify the “conflict minerals” mined in conditions of armed conflict and human rights abuses. Former House aide guilty in Abramoff case The Jack Abramoff scandal just won’t quit! A former aide to Rep. Don Young (R-AK) was convicted Thursday of “conspiracy and accepting an illegal all-expenses paid trip to the 2003 World Series in New York City.” Ted Stevens FBI file could answer questions on botched prosecution The FBI will respond to a Freedom of Information Act request today on the botched Ted Stevens prosecution which may provide some answers on what went wrong. Other Public campaign funding is key to democracy A letter from Binghamton calling for Voter-Owned Elections in New York! Watchdog laughs off bill to limit ethics complaint A Texas lawmaker, who received an ethics complaint last year, has filed legislation to restrict who can file complaints—you have to be a resident in Texas or you have to be a property owner. I guess it’s a good sign it’s “or” and not “and.” Bipartisan support offers good chance for campaign finance reform in 2011 Campaign finance reform in Nevada this year? Groups launch opposition to legislation in Kansas requiring disclosure of who funds issue ads Some Kansans want transparency in election ads, but wealthy special interests disagree.