Campaign Finance/Ethics
Trump already in campaign legal trouble?
In a sign he’s not really serious about running for president, Donald Trump may have already broken campaign finance law, says Campaign Legal Center’s Paul Ryan.

The conservatives’ case for campaign finance reform
Ezra Klein takes conservatives to task for complaining about union’s political clout but being opposed to campaign reforms. “It’s curious that the alarm conservatives feel when they look at the nexus of moneyed interests and government power doesn’t translate into support for the sort of laws that might weaken that link.” He specifically points out Fair Elections and DISCLOSE.

Time to wake up the sleeping watchdog that is the Federal Elections Commission
Citizens United v. FEC should’ve led to more transparency, but that hasn’t been the case, and according to this editorial, “But there is also no doubt that the FEC is completely useless as a watchdog agency.” Bashes McConnell AND Obama.

Congress
Lankford invited his campaign donors to testify
Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.) had a field hearing recently—and three of the four private-sector panelists were campaign donors

Scott Brown begs David Koch for money
Watch Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) beg David Koch for campaign funds.

John Ensign leaving the Senate
And embattled Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) will not seek re-election in 2010. I’ll leave the jokes for others to make.

Protestors rally in DC for harsher sanctions on mortgage servicers
Our friends at National People’s Action staged protests in DC yesterday at the State Attorneys General meeting and banks to protest mortgage servicers. And one of our favorite Iowans, Hugh Espey: "It's peanuts. It's chump change.” Reported penalties "should be in the hundreds of billions of dollars."

Insurers lobbying on the fine print may erase consumer protections
Insurers companies are going to lobby hard to weaken a provision of health care reform that requires insurers to spend 80 cents on the dollar to pay claims.  

Other
Japanese foreign minister Maehara resigns amid donation flap
“Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara resigned Sunday after receiving illegal donations from a foreigner, dealing another blow to Prime Minister Naoto Kan's faltering ruling party.” The amount of the donation? $2,400. Makes our FEC really seem like child’s play!

Commission expands definition of lobbyist
Is a new Georgia provision on lobbyists overly broad, since it includes EVERYONE? Maybe.

Dems call for ethics inquiry on legislator
If it’s a day that ends in Y, something crazy is happening at the Arizona state house: “Pressure is mounting for Senate Majority Leader Scott Bundgaard to resign from his leadership position in the wake of a domestic-violence incident.”

Corporate cash bolsters parties
And from Florida, “Heading into a legislative session shaping up as one of the most pro-business in years, lawmakers are riding an unprecedented wave of corporate and special-interest cash, with $8.8 million in donations to the state parties in the last two months of 2010.”

DC office of campaign finance looking into allegations against Gray’s campaign
Not an awesome start for the Mayor Gray administration--”The D.C. Office of Campaign Finance has initiated a probe of allegations aired by mayoral candidate Sulaimon Brown...”