Big news yesterday: Organizing for Action announced it was joining the Campaign for Fair Elections in New York, starting with a conference call for its grassroots supporters tonight. Speakers on the call include OFA's Jon Carson, Public Campaign Action Fund's David Donnelly, and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

David Donnelly: "We are excited to have Organizing for Action and their tens of thousands of grassroots volunteers join in the campaign to pass Fair Elections in New York, and we are grateful for the work they'll do with us in every corner of the state to build the public momentum to win." Huffington Post.

Jon Carson, in the text of its email to 744,000 New Yorkers: "This is a historic opportunity to give New Yorkers the campaign finance system they want and deserve — one that OFA supporters in New York have said they want to be a part of. Governor Cuomo is leading a coalition of organizations across the state — battle-tested grassroots supporters like you are going to help them get the job done." Times Union.

Citizen Action of NY's Karen Scharff: "Organizing for Action's support brings unstoppable momentum to the campaign for Fair Elections for New York. As our movement for publicly funded elections spreads across New York, we are confident that lawmakers will hear the voters and decide to transform our campaign finance system and restore our democracy during this legislative session." Auburn Citizen.

Capitol Tonight, Coalition Release, Common Cause praises the move.

Center for American Progress Action Fund's Tom Perriello with an op-ed in Albany: "Passing a comprehensive campaign finance law would be a remarkable act of political leadership by Governor Cuomo....In addition to transforming New York's political system, it would generate nationwide attention and could galvanize efforts to replicate the "New York model" across the country and in Washington. This is a fight with big stakes for New Yorkers and for all Americans. It is the kind of fight that can define a leader. Lead on Governor."

Campaign Finance/Fair Elections
Reuters: Same-sex marriage: court on the couch
Interesting opinion piece from Rick Hasen: "Will Justice Anthony Kennedy’s support for a constitutional right to gay marriage doom the constitutionality of affirmative action and a key provision of the Voting Rights Act? To answer this question, legal scholars need to know less about constitutional law and more about human psychology."

Times Dispatch: McDonnell signs bill requiring voter ID for voting
Booo: "Gov. Bob McDonnell has signed legislation requiring voters to present photo ID at the polls."

Bozeman Daily Chronicle: Split Senate backs bill reining in "dark money"
Montana Senate passed legislation to increase transparency in political spending, against wishes of Republican Senate leaders. Love this: "The Republican Senate leaders even tried to rally their troops by promising that the campaign finance overhaul measure would give Democrats an advantage in elections."

Congress/Admin
NYT: Pro-Obama group details policy and fundraising goals
On OFA: "New details are emerging about the ambitious financial goals of Organizing for Action, the tax-exempt group created by former Obama campaign operatives to advance the president’s agenda."

CNN: Rubio helps raise north of $200,000 for McConnell
Good for McConnell for holding a fundraiser in Kentucky! "The election is still more than a year away, but Sen. Mitch McConnell's campaign coffers got a boost Monday when fellow Republican Sen. Marco Rubio helped rake in more than $230,000 at a fundraiser in Kentucky."

Mother Jones: Hillary Clinton holds the purse strings
"Call it the Hillary Clinton Cash Freeze. According to Clinton's friends, fundraisers, and former campaign staffers, big Democratic money isn't going anywhere until she makes up her mind about launching a second presidential campaign."

CPI: Gay rights lobby courts lawmakers with cash
On Human Rights Campaign's lobbying and PAC giving: "As the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments this week in two cases concerning gay rights, advocacy powerhouse Human Rights Campaign has been rallying its base by word — and by dollar."

Marketplace: Lobbyists gearing up for fight over tax breaks
"Many companies are gearing up to defend their cherished tax breaks, even if they seem…a little loopy." Sunlight's Lee Drutman: "Every tax break got into the tax code based on some justification. But in totality, they add up to a whole stinking mess of craziness.”

CPI: Rockstar Energy Drink targets beverage laws
"Rockstar, Inc., maker of the eponymous beverage, has hired a well-connected team of Podesta Group lobbyists — nine in all — to press federal lawmakers on 'legislation and oversight regarding energy drinks,' a new filing with the U.S. Senate indicates."

The Hill: Beer fight brewing over taxes
The big beer companies have a difference of opinion with the craft brewers over legislation currently in Congress.

The Hill: K Street's winners and losers in budget fights
On last week's vote-a-rama, "The amendment process, while nonbinding, serves as a testing ground for proposals that lobbyists and trade groups are hoping to move through this session of Congress." Kevin Bogardus has the list of winners and losers.

Roll Call: SEIU launches immigration ads
"The Service Employees International Union on Tuesday announced a new round of cable TV advertising in support of a comprehensive immigration overhaul. The ads, worth $300,000, are set to begin Wednesday."

WaPo: The corporate "predator state"
Katrina vanden Heuvel's latest column: "Beneath all the partisan bickering, bipartisan majorities are solid for a trade policy run by and for multinationals, a health-care system serving insurance and drug companies, an energy policy for Big Oil and King Coal, and finance favoring banks that are too big to fail."

Politico: New CEO for natural gas alliance
"America's Natural Gas Alliance is bringing on veteran energy industry lobbyist Marty Durbin as its incoming CEO, POLITICO has learned."

TPM: Is Ex-Rep. David Rivera’s ‘Conservative Bad Girl’ holed up in Nicaragua?
The David Rivera scandal continues to be the best scandal. On a witness who disappeared in September: "A reporter for América TeVé, a Miami-based Spanish-language television station, reported late last week that a government source in Nicaragua had informed her that Alliegro entered Nicaragua on Sept. 6. "

Salt Lake Tribune: Romney invites big donors to Utah in June
More on that strange retreat Romney is throwing to donors, which is really just looking like a way to get investors for his son's Solamere Group.

HuffPost: Goldman Sachs shareholder proposes bank run For political office; bank declines
"Unfortunately, Goldman Sachs has rejected a shareholder's proposal that it run for political office as the next logical step in the corporations-are-people paradigm."

Other/States
AJC: Ethics reform now includes incumbent-protection provision
An interesting twist on legislation that prevents state lawmakers from raising money during the legislative session: Georgia lawmakers want to prevent their challengers from doing the same (even though they aren't in the legislature).

AP: NC Gov. had more donations from internet cafes
"Gov. Pat McCrory's campaign is giving a $2,000 donation to charity after the money was linked to a man facing criminal charges related to Internet sweepstakes cafes, the second time his campaign has unloaded a contribution with ties to the gaming industry."