Big legislative news in the campaign finance world: Two new bills join the Fair Elections Now Act as options before Congress to boost the power of small donors and reduce the undue influence of money in politics. Rep. Sarbanes (D-Md.) introduced his legislation on Friday, and Reps. Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Price (D- N.C.) will introduce their own variation this week.

Campaign Finance/Fair Elections
NYT: Poll: Strong Support for Campaign Spending Limits
“More than 8 in 10 Americans in a poll by The Associated Press and the National Constitution Center support limits on the amount of money given to groups that are trying to influence U.S. elections.” Unlike five members of the Supreme Court, most Americans don’t see a conflict between this view and First Amendment freedoms either.

Al Jazeera: US democracy: The power of money
Al Jazeera interviews Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), Jim Bopp, Jr., the legal architect of the Citizens United v. FEC decision, Melanie Sloan of CREW, Steven Hoersting of CCP, and Georgetown professor Clyde Wilcox about the overlap of money and power in today's American political system. A great quote from Jim Bopp: The post-Citizens United campaign finance world “means that the average person can participate.” Umm, okay.

NYT: Is Poverty a Kind of Robbery?
Great passage exposing the problem of having "free speech" contingent on having significant wealth: “The unshackling of moneyed interests — in the name of first amendment rights — from restraints on campaign contributions has, in fact, constrained the free speech of the disadvantaged. It empowers those whose goal is to hinder consumer-protection legislation, to forestall more progressive tax rates and to quash populist insurgencies.”

Boston Globe: Alito says Supreme Court misunderstood by media
Alito’s statements to a Rhode Island law school audience included this interesting quote: ‘Campaign finance is very complicated, so it’s easy to get it wrong.” An interesting quote coming from a member of the 5-4 majority in Citizens United...

Huffington Post: A New Strategy to Fight Citizens United
A shorter version of Kent Greenfield's essay in Democracy, appearing in the Huffington Post: "Instead of amending the constitution to weaken corporate 'personhood,' we should focus on changing corporations themselves so that overturning Citizens United would be unnecessary. We should use this historical moment to nudge corporations closer to what the Supreme Court assumed they are in its Citizens United decision -- 'associations of citizens.'"

Congress/2012
Politico: Axelrod hits Adelson in email blast, Adelson hits back
David Axelrod called out Sheldon Adelson and his pledge to spend $100 million on the 2012 election, noting research by the Center for American Progress Action Fund that shows Adelson could enjoy a more than $2 billion windfall under Romney. Adelson’s spokesperson replies: “In this economy is it really appropriate to demonize people who have a long history of helping others in times of need?”
 
Washington Examiner: Carney: Sugar lobby funds group's fight against corn syrup
A fun look and the money-in-politics story behind the fight between sugar and corn: “So it is in Washington these days. The spotlight goes to the proverbial "Baptist" -- that is, the environmentalist, the women's advocate, the worker's advocate or the consumer advocate -- while the proverbial "bootlegger" funds the effort and reaps the profit.”
 
NPR: Ad Advantage May Be Responsible For Obama Bump
President Obama’s campaign and allied groups were outspending Romney and his allies almost two-to-one in the weeks of the conventions. So how much of Obama’s “convention bounce” is actually a “TV ad bounce?”

Politico: Republican super PACs ramp up spending in House races
Republican-supporting super PACs, including the American Action Network, Congressional Leadership Fund, and YG Action Fund, are launching $7 million in TV ads in tight congressional districts, targeting the Democratic agenda under Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
 
Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Lesser known Koch brother is top Florida donor
Even if he pales in comparison to the plan of his high profile brothers Charles and David to marshal $400 million against President Obama’s re-election, Bill Koch is the biggest political contributor in the state of Florida.

BuzzFeed: Tech Figures Raised At Least $27 Million For Obama Campaign
With the relationship between Obama and Wall Street on shaky ground, Silicon Valley has emerged as a leading alternative source of campaign cash.

Boston Globe: Romney silent on bundlers who raise millions of dollars for his campaign
Unlike Obama—and for that matter, the last two Republican presidential nominees—Romney continues to refuse to reveal the names of his fundraising bundlers, outside of the legal mandate to reveal lobbyist bundlers: “[T]here is a whole other swath of influential Romney supporters whose names voters can only guess at, because the campaign refuses to reveal them.”

Other/States
Hartford Courant (CT): Ethics Agency Destroys Public Records Of State Officials' Financial Interests
“The Office of State Ethics has quietly destroyed a quarter-century's worth of public records concerning the finances of present and former public officials, drawing a protest from the head of an open-government group who says the thousands of shredded files were an irreplaceable resource.”