"PAC shielded $2.3 million in donations by L.A. charter school backers"

Great to speak with Howard Blume of the Los Angeles Times for this one. 

Recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions have presumed that voters would have full knowledge of who was contributing to campaigns when it struck down many limits on the amount of donations, said Jessica Levinson, a Loyola Law School professor who specializes in election law and heads the L.A. City Ethics Commission.

"The purposes of the disclosure laws are to give the public information, which is much more useful the faster it comes," said Levinson. "The concern is that you can use an intermediary and, essentially, legally mask who is behind a donation.

"Supreme Court's campaign money ruling makes Bay Area rich more influential"

Quoted in this one in the Mercury News. 

Theoretically, one person can now give $5,200 to each of the 535 members of Congress -- about $2.78 million -- though it's hard to imagine why anyone would do that. But there is no limit on how many PACs can exist, so there's practically no limit to how much influence a single donor can now wield through them.

"It starts to feel like a story that's so far removed not only from the average citizen but even the average citizen of the upper class," said Jessica Levinson, a money-in-politics expert at Loyola Law School.

"Now it essentially becomes the cost of business to give huge amounts of money," she said, adding only the richest will be able to keep up.

Some donors who made this rarefied list might want to change their telephone numbers.

"Stephen Colbert Shows How Easy It Is To Game Campaign-Finance Laws"

"On Thursday's Colbert Report the comedian, who has said he wants to be a big political-money player in the 2012 election-cycle, showed how easy it is, with the right Washington lawyer, to game the system.
After learning Viacom was concerned about his running afoul of campaign finance laws if he formed a political action committee, Colbert learned of a workaround, a super pac."

NPR has more. 

Will "super pacs" spend more than $1 billion in 2012?

The National Journal has more.

Which police union broke a PAC law?

According to the Worcester Telegraph, "The Worcester Police Officials Union did not comply with campaign finance law when it received money from members for its political action committee, according to the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance." Click here for more.

"Senate Dems launch 'super PAC'"

"Top Democratic operatives are quietly building an aggressive campaign machine to battle huge Republican third-party spending and sway critical Senate races in 2012."

Politico has more here.