Lots of pre-general FEC filings yesterday. Here we go:

NYT: "President Obama and Mitt Romney are both on pace to raise more than $1 billion with their parties by Election Day, according to financial disclosures filed by the campaigns on Thursday." WaPo, Bloomberg, AP, CNN, Politico, Politico, LA Times.

First reported over at Public Campaign Action Fund: Chevron donated $2.5 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund, a House Republican super PAC. That one check is double what the company's PAC and employees have donated this cycle.

Billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, who earlier this year said that the wealthy have "insufficient influence" in the political process, donated another $500,000 to Restore Our Future, bringing his total to $1.45M. One has to wonder when he believes the wealthy have just enough influence. Shel and Miriam Adelson donated another $10M too. More on Restore Our Future's fundraising at NYT, HuffPost, LA Times.

HuffPost on the Obama-aligned Priorities USA Action: "$13 million in the first half of October, according to a report filed on Thursday. That included three $1 million checks from first-time donors from Silicon Valley, including Zynga's Mark Pincus, Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla, and LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman." Politico, Sunlight.

WaPo: "Many of the top donors to a group that funded controversial attacks on the military career of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in the 2004 presidential race are now heavily funding a super PAC targeting President Obama, new records show."

Sunlight Foundation: "Outside groups have spent more than $1 billion trying to influence this year's election, and the tidal wave of special interest money so no signs of abating in the 10 days that remain before Election Day."

Campaign Finance/Fair Elections
CED: New York business leaders overwhelmingly support reform of state campaign finance rules
It looks like business leaders in New York agree with everyone else: we need to fix the broken campaign finance system. A new national poll from the Corporate Reform Coalition shows similar results. The Hill.

NYT: Blocking the vote
Editorial: "The Republican Party has made voter fraud the red herring of this election. Now it turns out the party has been forced to cut its ties to a well-paid consulting firm after cases of real voter registration abuse arose in several swing states."

Congress/2012
Politico: Obama: Campaign spending "ridiculous"
On the day the campaign nearly hit the $1B mark, Obama told Brian Williams: "I think the amount of money that is being spent in my campaign and Mr. Romney's campaign and in the super PACs that are out there is ridiculous."

Roll Call: Former IRS official accuses ALEC of lying about assets
"The former head of the IRS’ Exempt Organizations division accused the conservative nonprofit American Legislative Exchange Council of lying about its assets in its federal tax filings in a letter sent to the agency Wednesday."

WaPo: 1 in 10 contributors donated via text, study says
Good news for small donors: "A new study suggests that newfangled text donations have already become a notable part of political fundraising, with about one in 10 presidential campaign donors giving money to the presidential candidates through their cellphones."

Politico: Romney ad bomb finally here?
"The long-awaited October Mitt Romney ad bomb is finally coming to a TV screen near you. At least, that’s what the Romney campaign is telling folks."

CRP: Wall Street funds down from Obama's inaugural run
Wall Street has given up on Obama, shifting dramatically to Mitt Romney from last cycle.

NYT: The money trail in Illinois
New York Times editorial on the money flowing into the Walsh/Duckworth race, hitting Walsh for not agreeing to an outside spending pledge: "Mr. Walsh would have been wise to take her up on it — a move that might have averted one of the ugliest campaigns in the country."

NPR: Tax-exempt Crossroads GPS airs first direct "vote Mitt Romney" ad
"Karl Rove's tax-exempt Crossroads GPS group just months ago said it was interested only in advancing issues, not engaging in electoral politics. This week, it began running a minute-long ad telling viewers to vote for Republican Mitt Romney — and it doesn't mention at all those very issues it had been saying were central to its mission."

Hollywood Reporter: Hollywood raises $13 million for Obama in October
"First Lady Michelle Obama arrived for a sold-out fundraiser Thursday at the Calabasas home of Will Smith and wife Jada Pinkett Smith -- bringing the total raised for the president's re-election campaign to $13 million at four Los Angeles events in October, according to campaign finance sources."

Roll Call: DCCC outraises NRCC in pre-general FEC report
"The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee outraised the National Republican Congressional Committee by about $2 million, from Oct. 1 to 17."

Crossroads machine drops combined $78 million this month--so far
Speaking of Crossroads: "GOP-aligned independent groups American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS have now dropped a combined $78 million in October alone to influence the 2012 election."

Politicker: Paul Ryan's "problematic" RNC spending spree
Some questions are being raised about the money Paul Ryan spent from his House campaign account during the RNC.

Indiana Business Journal: Mourdock keeps up fundraising after uproar over remark
"If Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock was feeling any heat for the high-profile comments he made about pregnancy, rape and abortion, it wasn't at a Republican fundraiser Wednesday night in the wealthy Indianapolis suburb of Carmel."

WaPo: Ryan makes final fundraising swing through reliably Republican states in deep south
The election is just days away, but Paul Ryan is headed to South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama...to raise money.

AP: Wis. US House fundraising edge is with incumbents
"At least five of Wisconsin's U.S. House incumbents hold a financial edge heading into next month's elections, according to the most recent campaign finance reports filed Thursday."

NaJo: K Street's Q4 expectations
"Third quarter lobbying revenues flowed in this week and receipts are down at a cross-section of firms, but lobbyists see some salvation in Q4 and beyond. "

AP: Ohio House Republicans raise, spend more than Dems
"Republicans in the Ohio House have far outraised and outspent their Democratic counterparts heading into the final weeks before the Nov. 6 election."

Sunlight: Colorado super PAC moves into Scott Tipton's race
"The Colorado Future Fund, a super PAC fueled by a controversial donor to GOP Colorado Rep. Scott Tipton's campaign, today filed notice that it had made an expenditure against Tipton's Democratic opponent, Sal Pace."

Other/States
AP: California campaign finance watchdog agency demands names of donors to shadowy Arizona group
"The state's campaign finance watchdog Thursday filed suit against a shadowy Arizona group that has refused to disclose its donors after making the largest anonymous campaign contribution in California history."