The Maine legislature ended without repealing gubernatorial Clean Elections.

"The Federal Election Commission released two major draft opinions on Friday to address questions surrounding the operation of new super political action committees, which can raise and spend unlimited funds."

"A federal appeals court decision that paved the way for the Justice Department to proceed with its case against former Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) for alleged corruption, extortion and fraud could set the stage for a Supreme Court showdown over a constitutional clause that errant lawmakers have used successfully in recent years to avoid criminal prosecution."

Let the games begin. Crossroads is up with new ads this week, "Over the next two months, the group's television campaign targeting Obama's record on the economy will total $20 million."

And it's a real grassroots effort over there: "The report shows that American Crossroads raised $3,824,628 million between January 1 and June 13, with just three donors providing 91 percent of the money."

And the Democratic House PAC is out today with new radio ads attacking vulnerable Republicans on the Ryan budget. Script: "Scott Tipton voted for the Republican Budget that includes another trillion dollars in tax cuts for the wealthy."

John Reaves writes, "House members who voted against removing the subsidies received $8.7 million in campaign contributions from oil and gas companies in 2010,  according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Those in favor received $1.2 million. Big contributions sway votes."

A letter from Marietta, Ohio: "Well, when you think about it, it should be obvious. There are four magic words. One is big. As in big! The second is dollar, as in big dollar! The third magic word is campaign. And the final magic word is contributions. Altogether, the magic words are big dollar campaign contributions."

The White House has released the names of a visit by DNC donors that drew criticism last week. "In addition to the Wall Street financiers and business executives, the session was attended by Andy Tobias, the DNC treasurer; Patrick Gaspard, the former White House political director and current DNC executive director; and Brad Thompson, a DNC fundraiser who works with high-dollar donors and bundlers in New York."

Interesting story in Mississippi using maplight.org data: "Looking at their voting records and campaign contributions, we wanted to see how many times their vote was in line with a contributor's position on any given piece of legislation within 30 days of the contribution being made; some votes happened the same day."

Premiums for maxed out donors: "Donors who pledge $75,800 to the Obama Victory Fund will be named “Presidential Partners” and will be invited to quarterly campaign briefings that are sometimes attended by the president, said a Democratic official who wasn’t authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity."

The Obama campaign is trying to get nearly half a million donors by the end of second quarter this week. 

Largely absent from political giving since 2004, George Soros handed over $75k to the Democrats new House Majority PAC. "An an encouraging sign for Democrats hoping to counter big-money conservative groups and their impact on the 2012 campaign, a host of wealthy liberals...contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to a new Democratic group supporting House candidates that aired ads in last month’s special election in New York."

Seen some "grassroots energy activists" at Iowa Republican events lately? According to ThinkProgress: "Rather than being a grassroots organization, the Iowa Energy Forum is a slick, new creation of the oil and gas industry."

Which one is going to win over the Mormon money?

Mitt Romney's going to be leading the wealth primary when 2nd quarter numbers are announced. "Money alone won’t win an election — see former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee’s underfunded 2008 Iowa caucus victory as evidence — but it is widely regarded as an early test of who has momentum and who doesn’t."