Must-read Drew Westen piece in the Times. "In studying voters’ responses to a range of messages, we discovered that Americans understand that our government is bought — and they want it back. You just have to speak with them in ways they can hear."

WaPo: Romney super PAC raised $20M in June
A source tells Washington Post "Restore Our Future" raised $20M in June. Half of that, based on previous reporting, is Adelson money I believe. Priorities USA, the Obama-aligned super PAC, raised $6M.

Quarterly FEC reports were due yesterday. Top stories:

• Politico: Romney Victory fund pulls in $140M
• Politico: Sheldon Adelson gives $5M to Cantor-backed super PAC
• NaJo: House leaders raise big bucks
• Politico: John Boehner, the $80 million man
• PCAF Tumblr: White Castle donates $25k to House Republican super PAC
• WaPo: Four Democratic groups raise $25 million in second quarter
• Politico: Texas bigshots aid pro-Dewhurst super PAC
• The Hill: AllenWest announces $2.2M second-quarter fundraising haul (!)
• Politico: Jan Brewer scores with NFL contribution

Campaign Finance/Fair Elections
WaPo: Expose the fat cats
Editorial on DISCLOSE: "AMERICANS WHO are worried about the corrosive power of big money in politics ought to watch what is about to happen in the Senate." Bob Edgar in HuffPost. A look at Snowe and Collins and whether they'll stand with their own history of reform or Mitch McConnell. Elizabeth Warren supports DISCLOSE but Sen. Scott Brown doesn't.

Politico: Mitch McConnell dead wrong on DISCLOSE Act
Brennan Center's Adam Skaggs: "By intimating that it is illegitimate for the legislative and executive branches to develop policy in response to Supreme Court decisions, the Senate leader displays ignorance of the basic hydraulics in the founders’ system of separated powers."

ThinkProgress: NRA warns Senators not to support disclosure
The NRA has basically said if you vote to disclose secret money, we'll pummel you with secret money.

NYT: Disenfranchised felons
New York Times editorial on felon disenfranchisement: "Courts and scholars have long concluded that race explains why minorities are overrepresented in prisons better than any other factor. Until the criminal system is made fairer, the number of people disenfranchised will grow, with blacks unfairly excluded from voting at a much higher rate. "

Congress/2012
NYT: Penny Pritzker had big role in Obama '08 but is backstage in '12
Interesting read on Penny Pritzker. "Ms. Pritzker is engaged in new business ventures, and fellow Obama donors say she could not be expected to repeat her tireless efforts from 2008. But interviews with dozens of donors, friends, and campaign and former White House officials show that virtually from the moment of Mr. Obama’s election, the golden relationship between the two became more complicated."

HuffPost: Jonathan Soros super PAC aims to raise big money to reduce big money's power
"Friends of Democracy -- which is headed by Jonathan Soros, son of billionaire hedge funder George Soros; Ilyse Hogue, former MoveOn political and communications director; and David Donnelly, executive director of Public Campaign Action Fund -- seeks to build political power on the issue of reducing the political power of big money."

WaPo: Romney tries to regain momentum with new focus on Obama's "political payoffs"
Interesting: "In a coordinated offensive starting Monday, the Romney team and its allies will say that the president has been a 'typical politician' and has demonstrated 'systematic favoritism' toward top campaign fundraisers by lavishing them with federal appointments and their companies with taxpayer money and special government deals, according to campaign officials." USA Today.

Los Angeles Times: Mitt Romney's bright spot in a trying week: fundraising
It was a rough week for Romney: "But the week has been exceptional for Romney in another way, as he worked the fundraising circuit for another giant haul that gives the campaign the resources for a fierce counterpunch when the time is right."

Reuters: Romney's fundraising potential far from tapped
"Of the big donors helping propel the fundraising of U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, fewer than 1 percent have hit the limit they can donate to his election bid, suggesting cash is likely to keep pouring into his coffers." Only 40 donors have given the max $75,800.

Politico: Michelle Obama fundraises in New York
"First lady Michelle Obama was in New York on Sunday raising money for her husband's reelection campaign at the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Pocantico Hills."

Roll Call: Aetna shareholders question company paymewnts to advocacy groups
"A group of Aetna investors has written the insurance company’s CEO to allege that Aetna violated its own political disclosure policy when it gave $7.8 million to the nonprofit American Action Network and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce."

Miami Herald: State cops, prosecutors were ready to charge U.S. Rep. David Rivera before case fall apart
Super interesting look at the case of embattled Rep. David Rivera. "Newly released e-mails and other records from the Rivera investigation show the increasing tension between the FDLE and the Miami-Dade state attorney’s office as the case dragged on through this past April, when prosecutors — under pressure from the FDLE to make a decision — finally dropped the high-profile case."

Boston Globe: Warren draws on wellsprings of cash in NY, CA
"Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren depended on deep pockets in California, New York, and donor-rich states to help fuel the nation’s most potent congressional fund-raising machine, according to her latest campaign finance report."

Republic Report: Scandal-Plagued Congressman Jerry Lewis To Give Lecture On “Ethical Lobbying” — To Audience Of Lobbyists
Heh: "American League of Lobbyists is hosting an event on “Effecitve and Ethical Lobbying.” The lecture is led by none other than Jerry Lewis and his colleague Congressman Norm Dicks (D-WA)."

Roll Call: Chevron lawsuit hits K Street giants, prompting charges of poaching
On Chevron and Ecuador: "And though the firms have been on opposite sides in the litigation, they now have something in common: Rival K Street shops are using fallout from the case to try to lure away Patton Boggs and Ogilvy clients."

Robert Reich: The selling of American democracy
"Who’s buying our democracy? Wall Street financiers, the Koch brothers, and casino magnates Sheldon Adelson and Steve Wynn. And they’re doing much of it in secret."