Campaign Finance/Fair Elections
Lawmakers Set to Double Donor Limits For Gubernatorial Candidates
“Opponents say the amendment undermines Maine's Clean Election law for publicly-funded candidates after efforts to repeal the law have thus far sputtered. They add that the change will allow candidates running for governor to garner more money from fewer people and potentially make them less accountable to a broad constituency.”
 
High Court Upholds Nevada Ethics Law
The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld Nevada’s ethics law barring legislators from voting when they have a personal interest in the outcome on the basis that voting is NOT protected by the first amendment. “Monday's decision shows that the court's conservative majority draws distinctions between electioneering, where it has viewed campaign finance regulations as inhibiting robust debate, and official acts.”
-      More from the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/14/us/politics/14scotus.html?ref=politics
-      National Public Radio: http://www.npr.org/2011/06/13/137158191/top-court-upholds-nevada-ethics-law
-      Los Angeles Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/sc-dc-0614-court-speech-20110613,0,3734375.story

GOP Horribly Wrong to End Public Financing of Elections
Common Cause Executive Director Jay Heck calls out Wisconsin Republicans for working to end the state’s public financing law and use the funds for a voter ID law.
-The Sheboygan Press also editorializes on the matter: http://www.sheboyganpress.com/article/20110527/SHE06/105270351/Editorial-Killing-public-financing-elections wrong?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs

Hawaii Drops Appeal of Campaign Donation Limits
“The state of Hawaii has dropped its federal appeal of a ruling that allowed unlimited contributions to political action committees. The action permits Hawaii residents to donate as much as they want to noncandidate committees that make solely independent expenditures, and it invalidates a $1,000 limit on contributions passed into state law in 2005.”
- More from the Honolulu Star Advertiser: http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/20110614_State_drops_campaign_gift_appeal.html

Campaign Finance Controversy
The Los Angeles Times (reprinted in the Sacramento Bee) takes on a number of the recent puzzling campaign finance decisions.

Congress/2012
Washington Heads Back to Wall Street
Ezra Klein has a great article lambasting both parties for going back to Wall Street for campaign cash.
-“If we don’t want them kowtowing before bankers and hedge-fund managers, well, we have to change the laws governing our elections, not whine about politicians who’re playing the game as we’ve set it up. That said, I‘ve always thought one of the interesting “what-ifs” of the Obama administration was a world in which they’d launched a campaign last year to pass the Fair Elections Now Act  based on the argument that the banks and assorted other special-interests simply had too much power in Washington.”