Campaign Finance/Fair Elections
Embattled House ethics panel hires top lawyer 
The House Ethics Committee has hired the former counsel to the Senate Ethics Committee as its new staff director and chief counsel

Former Montana Supreme Court justices argue high court should reinstate corporate money ban
These justices are asking the state's high court to reinstate the ban on corporate money that was thrown out after Citizens United. "The justices argue a lower court decision that did away with Montana's century-old ban opens the door to improper influence in judicial elections."

Big judicial election news: Supreme Court denies cert in Bauer v. Shepard, Siefert v. Alexander
Maybe the Supreme Court believes judicial elections are different after all.

Congress/2012
Paul Ryan: I don't know my donors, except for the ones I do
A ThinkProgress reporter caught Paul Ryan saying he doesn't know who his health insurance donors are and that 90 percent of his money comes from Wisconsinites. Our follow up post shows that, well, those two statements are probably not true.
- Here's the original ThinkProgress piece: http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2011/05/02/ryan-insurers-contributors/.

A family comes to Rep. Young's defense
"A wealthy Louisiana businessman and his family used a dozen corporate entities to contribute a total of $60,000 to a defense fund to help Rep. Don Young fight his legal battles, which some critics say circumvented the $5,000 limits for individual donations."

Credit card executives see sunny days ahead
Nauseating: "I am optimistic ... Nothing has been done that can't be rolled back quickly."

Eliminating oil subsidies: two cheers for President Obama
Two writers from the Cato Institute make the case for ending oil subsidies.

John Ensign says goodbye to empty seats
Embattled Sen. John Ensign gave his farewell Senate speech yesterday to an empty house.

Franking on Facebook may run afoul of founders
"No, they are not seizing anyone’s FarmVille or quartering troops on someone’s wall. But they could run afoul of a 20-year-old court ruling designed to prevent incumbents from having an unfair advantage in elections immediately following redistricting."

U.S. business has high tax rates but pays less
Sure, we technically have a high corporate tax rate, but it's not like anybody actually pays it. "World leaders in tax avoidance"

Other
Both sides in Blagojevich retrial lay out their cases
And former Gov.  Rod Blagojevich's  (D-Ill.) retrial begins! "A federal prosecutor likened Rod Blagojevich Monday to a corrupt traffic cop who presses a driver for a bribe to avoid a speeding ticket."

Recall effort falls short for two GOP senators
Or, spun another way, Wisconsin Democrats successfully got enough signatures to recall 6 state Senators.