Yesterday, we launched http://www.occupydemocracy.org/. In our statement in support of the Occupy Wall Street protests, we wrote: "In addition to occupying Wall Street, we need to occupy democracy. In a democracy occupied by everyday people, big donors and corporate special interests wouldn’t drown out the voices of the rest of us." Follow us (and join in!) on Twitter today with the hashtag #occupydemocracy.

Campaign Finance/Fair Elections
Hoosier's efforts could result in record campaign spending
There's another profile of Jim Bopp in the press today.

Senators should demand high standards from our highest court
Common Cause President Bob Edgar's latest Huffington Post piece on Supreme Court ethics. "If fact, there are no standards at all, or at least none that are binding. Americans like to think that no man, or woman, is above the law, but we seem to have allowed the court to rise to just that position."

Concepts in campaign finance that defy common sense
From the Campaign Legal Center blog: "But 'corporations as individuals' is not the only concept in current campaign finance law that makes no sense, thanks in part to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) -- the most dysfunctional agency in town -- and in part to three decades of inconsistent and labored Supreme Court jurisprudence that has resulted in a system that is essentially in tatters."

Congress/2012
State outsourced of allocation of federal disaster recovery funds to firm with ties to Perry
An engineering firm with close ties to Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas) (including campaign donors) is handling the management of nearly $1 billion in federal disaster funds--and seems to do be doing it poorly.

Perry raises $17 million
It looks like Perry raised $17 million in the third quarter since he announced--20,000 unique donors.

Top donors use super PACs to sidestep money limits to candidates
A new report from Democracy 21, the Center for Responsive Politics, and the Campaign Legal Center shows what we pretty much assumed--donors are using super PACs to get around contribution limits for their preferred candidates.
- More from HuffPost: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/04/candidate-specific-super-pacs-donors_n_994260.html

Obama pitches jobs bill and appeals to donors
"President Obama on Tuesday combined fund-raising and campaigning for his jobs bill in the home state of the Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry and the Congressional district of a House Republican leader, and he did not shy from telling donors that they and Texas’ oil companies should pay more taxes for the nation’s good."

Christie money backers may go to Romney
After the Chris Christie news-that-surprised-noone yesterday, it looks like some of the big donors pushing the NJ governor to run might go ahead and get behind Romney.

Occupy Wall Street--a rising voice challenges the power of big money
The Free Press on the Occupy Wall Street protests: "They're angry about bailouts, about the lack of jobs for ordinary Americans, about the money spent on foreign wars and the breaks for oil companies. But the source of their anger is the corruption of the political process; they feel locked out of legitimate avenues to make change in their favor."
- An op-ed in Pennsylvania states, "the persistent protesters of Occupy Wall Street are sending a wake-up call to the rest of the nation: Americans, your democracy is being stolen from you, and it's time to take it back." http://www.mcall.com/opinion/yourview/mc-wall-street-protests-morgan-yv-1005-20111004,0,2178558.story
- Harold Meyerson's in the Post, "It will take a massive, vibrant protest movement to bring America’s subservience to Wall Street to its overdue end." http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/rescuing-america-from-wall-street/2011/10/04/gIQAJGezLL_story.html

New members rush to start their own PACs
For a freshman class that blew in to "change Washington," they sure are falling into familiar patterns: "More than 25 percent of House Members serving their first full term in Congress have already set up their own political action committees, making the term 'leadership PAC' a bit of a misnomer."

Cordray to get committee confirmation vote Thursday
Rich Cordray will face a committee vote Thursday for his nomination to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

How one criminal case hit K Street
This story looks at businessman Lawrence Duran, "a pivotal figure in a long-running criminal scheme that bilked the Medicare program out of $87 million, but his efforts to influence Washington and play the lobbying game were only recently revealed in a slew of court documents released last month."

Eric Cantor aide creating super PAC
Cantor's deputy chief of staff is leaving Capitol Hill to start a super PAC to help the "Young Guns."

Operatives: Abysmal campaign fundraising in third quarter
"Only a few days after the third quarter ended, party operatives warned that the past three months will yield some of the worst Congressional fundraising totals in recent memory."

Dems blast Colorado congressman for accepting Koch cash
"Hours after Bloomberg published an investigative piece enumerating a pattern of dubious business practices at Koch Industries, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee blasted U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner, R- Colo., for accepting over $300,000 in campaign contributions."