Public Campaign Action Fund's David Donnelly made a brief appearance on The Daily Show last night. Check it out!

And, in case you missed it yesterday, the campaign for Fair Elections in New York released a video with Sam Waterston yesterday. Press on it in HuffPo, Albany Times Union, Capitol Tonight, Knickerbocker Ledger. The NYT reported yesterday: "The groups planned to send the video to more than a million New Yorkers, hoping some will lobby their state legislators on the issue of public financing before the elections. "

Campaign Finance/Fair Elections
WGBH: A young Joe Biden talks campaign finance on WBGH
Want to watch Vice President Joe Biden talk campaign finance in 1974? Well, here you go. In last night's debate, he briefly mentioned the negative effect of outside spending.

The Nation: Fightback on voting rights
Ari Berman on the fight back against restrictive voting laws this year--and activists don't intend to stop. One says: "The voting rights movement has been rejuvenated.”

BNA: Supreme Court Delays Until After Election Response Deadline in Major Disclosure Case (PDF)
"The Supreme Court has put off until after the Nov. 6 election deciding whether to review the constitutionality of campaign finance disclosure rules for an organization that says it is focused on policy issues, not political campaigns."

Congress/2012
AP: Chicago mayor says his fundraising helped keep pro-Obama super PAC ads on TV
"Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel says his fundraising has helped a pro-Obama super PAC keep its ads on television in the campaign's final weeks."

Daily Caller: Priebus aks for FBI investigation of Obama's online donors
The RNC asked Eric Holder to investigate Obama's online donations because of the debunked report that was partially based on a bad translation of a Norwegian blogger.

Public Campaign: President Obama holds 220th fundraiser
This would have been a better line of criticism for them: "After tonight's high-dollar event in Miami, Florida, President Barack Obama will have attended his 220th fundraiser since announcing his re-election in the spring of 2011..."

LA Times: After dominating primaries, Restore Our Future picks its shots
Restore Our Future hammered opponents in the primary, but later "it targeted key states with television commercials in an effort to maximize its resources -- and then went dark for much of September, expecting Romney’s campaign to be at full force on the airwaves during that period."

PCAF Tumblr: Quote from Pete DeFazio
I just don't think this quote from Pete DeFazio got enough attention yesterday: The Oregon Rep on what it was like after getting pummeled by outside money in 2010: "After the last election, when I would ask my [colleagues] to cosponsor a speculator tax they’d say, ‘I don’t really want to make the people on Wall Street that angry and didn’t somebody spend a lot of money against you?’ It has a chilling effect against some people on legislation."

Sunlight: American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS spend $174 million; 70% from anonymous donors
The Crossroads network has spent approximately $174,285,625.40 on the 2012 election and almost three out of every four dollars (70.5%) of this organization’s spending has come from anonymous donors."

WaPo: In a super PAC world, Democrats win using small donors
The DCCC is killing it with small donations: "The committee is currently raising 42 percent of its funds from donors giving $200 or less — a number much higher than in any election in the past decade. And the $53.3 million the DCCC has raised in small donations so far this election is already $15 million more than the previous high, set in 2010 ($37.5 million)."

AP: Massachusetts Democrats file ethics complaint against Scott Brown
"The Massachusetts Democratic Party filed an ethics complaint Wednesday night against Sen. Scott Brown, the Republican running for reelection against consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren. The complaint alleges Brown violated Senate ethics rules by failing to disclose required information about his law practice, specifically the names of his clients."

AP: Republican groups shift focus to House races
"Beginning Saturday, Crossroads GPS, one of the deep-pocketed groups co-founded by Karl Rove, is launching a three-week, $8.1 million broadcast campaign in 11 House districts in New York to Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Nevada, Indiana and California, according to Nate Hodson, the group's spokesman." Roll Call.

Newsday: Super PAC spending in House race tops $2 million
"Spending by outside interest groups in the congressional race between Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) and St. James Republican Randy Altschuler has topped $2 million -- double the total spent by such groups when the candidates first squared off in 2010."

Salon: Why is John Boehner hanging out with shady Rep. Michael Grimm?
Alex Seitz-Wald asks, if John Boehner pledged zero-tolerance on ethics issues, why is he fundraising with Michael Grimm?

AP: State Dems allege FEC violations in Senate race
"The Delaware Democratic Party has filed a com­plaint with the Federal Elections Commission alleging violations of campaign finance laws by an Inde­pendent candidate seeking to unseat Democratic Sen. Thomas R. Carper."

Texas Tribune: DeLay's Victories Endure, Even if He Loses in Court
"The Sugar Land Republican’s lawyers went before a panel of three Texas judges this week to appeal his conviction on money laundering and conspiracy charges, wailing about the criminalization of politics in the United States."

Minnesota Public Radio: The campaign on your tv is expensive, but cheaper than 08
"The election so far in the Twin Cities in a nutshell: More than $13 million, at least 11,634 television spots, eight races and two constitutional amendments. "

Other/States
NYT: Ex-aide to Gov. Walker pleads guilty in Wisconsin
"A former top aide to Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin pleaded guilty to one count of felony misconduct in public office in a deal with prosecutors Thursday, a week after Mr. Walker was subpoenaed to testify at the trial."

Haaretz: More than half of donations to Israeli politicians come from foreign donors
"More than half of the contributions to politicians in the past two years - 53 percent of the NIS 13 million - came from people who live overseas, cannot vote in Israel and are not directly impacted by the elected officials' decisions, Haaretz has found."