Campaign Finance/Fair Elections
USA Today: Ex-House members spend campaign money after they depart
File this under legal but questionable: “Former House members are spending their leftover money to pay for everything from luxury cars to foundations that bear their names, a USA TODAY review of new campaign-finance reports shows.”
 
Roll Call: Ethics Committee Will Continue Reviewing Schock, Owens Matters
The House Ethics Committee will continue looking into the Rep. Aaron Schock super PAC coordination case and the Rep. Bill Owens trip to Taiwan, but won’t make formal subcommittees to do so. More from Politico.
 
Politico: Karl Rove vs. tea party for GOP's future
Rove’s plan to put big money in Republican primaries behind winnable, mainstream candidates will likely face stiff resistance from Tea Party forces backing ideologically pure candidates. “The resulting battle would pit two well-funded factions of the conservative base against one another in a set of expensive primaries that could drain resources, produce weakened nominees and set back the GOP’s chances to retake the Senate and protect its House majority.”

Congress/Administration
WaPo: Lobbying down, but advocacy up
Disclosure reports show less spent on lobbying, but more on other methods of influencing government like grassroots mobilization as advocates expand their toolbox. “It used to be that Washington only had an army,” said Kevin O’Neill, deputy director of public policy at Patton Boggs. “Now we’ve got a navy, a coast guard and an air force.”
 
MSNBC: Karl Rove SuperPAC attacks Ashley Judd
She’s not even running yet and the attack ads are already coming. “The Republican’s super PAC, American Crossroads, is airing an ad in Kentucky criticizing the actress who is considering making a run against Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell—an indication that Rove thinks Judd is a threat in 2014.”
 
CPI: Interior secretary-nominee no stranger to D.C. political landscape
Sally Jewell has given campaign contributions to the president who nominated her and three senators, all of whom sit on the committee which will oversee her department.
 
Gawker: Facebook Cofounder’s Husband Files Papers to Run for Congress
Eldridge’s campaign in New York’s 19^th District will probably bring the issue of money in politics to the fore, as he has been a major leader in the funder community backing Fair Elections. “Sean Eldridge, the 26-year-old Democratic activist who last year married Facebook cofounder Chris Hughes, thus forming one of America's most powerful gay couples, has filed papers to run for Congress in New York's Hudson Valley.”
 
Bloomberg: Obama Is Said Close to Choosing Pritzker for Commerce
Another donor goes to a top administration post: “President Barack Obama is close to choosing Chicago businesswoman Penny Pritzker, who led fundraising for his 2008 campaign, as his next commerce secretary, according to three people familiar with the matter.”
 
Roll Call: 2014 Senate FEC Chart: Year-End Reports in Most Competitive Races
This chart by Roll Call has the cash on hand for each of the most competitive races for 2014 Senate. The one with the most? Mitch McConnell by a long shot, with $7.38 million, nearly double the draw of the next highest, Mark Warner of Virginia with $3.7 million.
 
WaPo: Sen. Menendez contacted top officials in friend’s Medicare dispute
More bad news for Menendez. “Sen. Robert Menendez raised concerns with top federal health-care officials twice in recent years about their finding that a Florida eye doctor — a close friend and major campaign donor — had overbilled the government by $8.9 million for care at his clinic, Menendez aides said Wednesday.”
 
Politico: U.S. groups flex their muscles in Brussels
“It’s accepted wisdom that Washington is broken. That’s why the hottest spot in the lobbying and advocacy world is suddenly Brussels.”
 
The Hill: RNC names finance chairman
Ray Washburne, CEO of real estate firm Charter Holdings, will be the next national finance chair for the Republican National Committee. He was previously a Bush bundler in 2000 and a Romney finance co-chairman for Texas.
 
Sunlight Reporting Group: Anti-Hagel ad spending tops $200K
Groups including Use Your Mandate, Americans for a Strong Defense, and the American Future Fund have spent at least $212,000 opposing the nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel to be secretary of defense.
 
Dallas Morning News: Kay Bailey Hutchison joins Bracewell & Giuliani as senior counsel
She says “I will not be lobbying,” but that she will “focus on advising clients on the regulatory process, legislative attitudes and the likelihood of government action.” Perhaps, Gingrich-style, we should call her a historian?

Other/States
Sunlight Reporting Group: On Wisconsin: Badger State gets no break from political air wars
It never stops: “The Wisconsin Club for Growth has purchased at least $83,000 in television ads, and while no one seems to know for certain what the spots are for, signs point to the state's Supreme Court election that will be held later this month.”
 
Sacramento Bee: Private engineers group gave $400,000 to murky initiative campaign
“Our members really don't like the whole money-in-politics thing.” So of course that means that the leadership of the American Council of Engineering Companies California should give $400,000 to a dark money group to spend on initiative campaigns in California.
 
Tech President: In Germany, American-Style Dark Money Politics Means a Blog With Anonymous Backers
There’s a hubbub in Germany over a new blog, backed with anonymous funders, with many Germans fearing this means the advent of American style campaigns. Its six figure anonymous support from five businessman seems more than quaint compared to the millions in anonymous attack ads in America.