Campaign Finance/Fair Elections
LA Times: States crack down on campaigning nonprofits
“The pressure in states with stringent campaign finance rules contrasts sharply with the federal level, where nonprofits that spent hundreds of millions of dollars to influence races this year have not been required to disclose their donors.”
 
WaPo: The Influence Industry: Advocates at odds over how to tighten campaign finance rules
T.M. Farnam covers the four varying proposals for public financing.
 
AlterNet: As The Anti-Citizens United Movement Grows, The Plutocrats Will Surely Attack
“[T]o move beyond the “fighting” stage to winning, we will need more sophisticated answers to critics than the bumper sticker slogans of “money is not speech” and “corporations are not people” that accurately describe the core values at stake but also leave room for ill-founded counter attack.”
 
Roll Call: Bevy of Fixes Might Complicate Efforts to Reshape Campaign Finance System
Another look at the different proposals for reform, as well as the Republican enthusiasm for removing the contribution limits to candidates and political parties.
 
The Economist: A morning-after constitutional?
“Similarly, Mr Udall hopes that “after this election [reform advocates] may gain some real momentum” among Republicans. He cites the same basic problem implied by Mr Cornyn: outside money has diluted the power of both candidates and parties in campaigns. Threaten politicians’ power, and they just might bite back.”
 
The Economist: Naming names
An argument supporting the Court’s ruling in Citizens United and also promoting the DISCLOSE Act.

Congress/2012
The Hill: With second term assured, Obama aides eye jobs as lobbyists on K Street
By avoiding registering as lobbyists, Obama aides hope for a big payday on K Street, despite Obama’s executive order limiting the revolving door: “Several headhunters for law and lobby firms said one thing that won’t work against the job seekers is Obama’s executive order on ethics, which bans former officials from lobbying the administration while he is in office.”

Mother Jones: How Super-PACs Could Fuel the War Over the GOP’s Future
“The party has done this kind of soul-searching before. But what's different—and potentially more explosive—this time around is the new breed of big-money super-PACs poised to spend millions to push their party toward the political center.”
 
Politico:  Democratic super PACs get jump on 2014, 2016
Democrats seek to institutionalize the super PACs and secret money groups that helped win 2012, despite their former opposition to unlimited political spending. “Their goal: a permanent network of officially blessed independent groups that leverages liberals’ increasing acceptance and appreciation of outside money to compete with a much-better-funded Republican shadow party.”
 
Businessweek: Corporations Want Obama’s Winning Formula
Remember that much-scoffed-at fashion line launched by the Obama campaign? It brought in $40 million.

Other/States
Grist: Chevron is newly concerned about politicians being influenced by money
It’s funny, Chevron didn’t seem to be so worried about the corrupting influence of money when they gave $2.5 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund, a Republican super PAC. Now, it alleges that New York State’s comptroller is beholden to contributors with links to lawyers representing Ecuadorian villagers against Chevron.
 
Bloomberg BNA: Justice Department Supports FEC In Dispute With CREW Over FOIA Request
Justice Department opposes Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington’s 2011 FOIA lawsuit seeking documents of communications between Republican FEC commissioners and outside individuals.

Slate: How Political Campaign Spending Brought Down the Roman Republic
“[T]he last generation of the Republic’s politics was dominated by two trends: universal complaints about money’s corrupting effect on politics and near universal unwillingness to do anything about it.”