In his State of the State address yesterday, Gov. Cuomo once again called for public financing and a broad reform agenda. New York Times editorial: "Most important, he vowed to start public financing for campaigns so that more candidates can compete against wealthy competitors." It ends with this: "It is a long, ambitious list. If Mr. Cuomo is looking for a place to start, it should be real gun control, a minimum-wage increase and campaign finance reform." The reform section is here; statements from Public Campaign, Citizen Action of New York, Brennan Center, Common Cause NY.

Also in New York yesterday, a Court ruled that 99 more votes could be counted in the Amedore/Tkaczyk Senate race, meaning that Tkaczyk could still become a State Senator (she currently has a 37 vote deficit). You may remember she wrote that "I'm convinced my outspoken support for these reforms is the reason only a handful of votes separate my opponent and me thus far."

Great story from Andy Kroll at Mother Jones yesterday on a broad coalition greens, civil rights groups, labor, and reformers like Public Campaign getting together to push a Democracy Initiative. "At the end of the day, many of the attendees closed with a pledge of money and staff resources to build a national, coordinated campaign around three goals: getting big money out of politics, expanding the voting rolls while fighting voter ID laws, and rewriting Senate rules to curb the use of the filibuster to block legislation."

Campaign Finance/Fair Elections
HuffPost: Campaign finance reform moves forward in Congress with little hope for passage
"Republicans in both the House and the Senate, save for a few, oppose almost any campaign finance reform. That leaves Democrats, and that small number of Republicans, to craft legislative language for future consideration."

LAT: Obama hasn't reined in big money
"The relaxed rules reflect how Obama has largely dropped his efforts to curb the role of money in politics, a cause he once vowed to make central to his presidency."

HuffPost: Happy Birthday Richard Nixon--RIP Campaign Finance Reform?
Bill Allison and Kathy Kiely at Sunlight write about Nixon's 100th birthday. "Who knew that it would also be an occasion for campaign finance reform nostalgia?"

Congress/2012
NYT: Public goals, private interests in debt campaign
Nick Confessore lays out what we have known all along: the Fix the Debt coalition is a group of corporations more concerned with preserving their own tax breaks than a balanced approach to deficit reduction. "In all, close to half of the members of Fix the Debt’s board and steering committee have ties to companies that have engaged in lobbying on taxes and spending, often to preserve tax breaks and other special treatment." Here is Public Campaign's report from November on their lobbying and campaign spending.

CRP: CRP unveils Obama inaugural donors page
CRP is the place to go for info about inaugural donors.

Yahoo: Obama relying on bigger checks for smaller inauguration party
"President Barack Obama, who has tried to limit the influence of money in politics, is relying on federal contractors and businesses that profited from his campaign to pay as much as $1 million for his inauguration party later this month." Telegraph.

The Nation: Lobbyists who profit from Senate dysfunction fight filibuster reform
Lee Fang: " Here are just a few examples of how powerful industries have usurped the normal gears of government, and used Senate obstruction to push policies that punish ordinary Americans and the environment."

The Hill: French wine lobby bristles at California "champagne" for Obama's inauguration.
!! "The French wine lobby is upset about the menu for Obama's inauguration and is penning a letter to the chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), The Hill has learned."

Politico: Same-sex marriage, pot lobbies take cause to DC
"After big wins on Election Day in various states, activists in favor of same-sex marriage and marijuana legalization have their eyes on a bigger prize this year: Washington."

WaPo: Big political donation from a modest home
Interesting. A conduit donation? "One million dollars is a big political contribution. It’s even bigger for a first-time political donor who lives in a $50,000 house. Yet that’s apparently the donation Sherry Huff, an accountant in Rossville, Ga., decided to give."

West Kentucky Star: Defeating McConnell super PAC's goal for 2014
On Progress Kentucky: "A Super-PAC in Kentucky has one goal for 2014 - to get Senator Mitch McConnell defeated. "

AP: NRA lobbying targets courthouses
"Now, the NRA has added a lesser-known strategy to protect its interests: opposing President Barack Obama's judicial nominees whom it sees as likely to enforce gun-control laws. In some cases, the group's opposition has kept jobs on federal benches unfilled."

Bloomberg: Boeing, GE update House donations after backing losers
"At least eight corporate PACs that contributed to the losing candidate gave to the victor in the month following the 2012 elections, Federal Election Commission records show."

Bloomberg: Giffords anti-gun groups gets $1 million Texas donation
"Steve and Amber Mostyn, wealthy Texas trial attorneys, said today that they are giving $1 million to help start the gun-control advocacy group formed by former Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly." USA Today.

Sunlight: After the inaugural balls, where does the money go?
"A number of recent presidential inaugural committess have acknowledged -- either wittingly or not -- ending up with a surplus of funds. There are no rules limiting how the money can be used."

Other/States
HuffPost: North Carolina voter ID law could impact 613,000 voters, report says
Oh, I'm sure this won't cause any problems: "As Republicans in North Carolina make a renewed push to pass a voter ID law, a new report from the State Board of Elections suggests that nearly one in ten voters lack state-issued photo identification."