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Corporate contribution views, campaign finance prosecutions, and more political law links for Monday

POST EDITORIAL ON CORPORATE CONTRIBUTION CASE. Here. The Virginian-Pilot has its say here. “If Cacheris’ ruling stands – and it will certainly be challenged – corporations are now free to not just speak on behalf of their favored candidates but to drop the pretense and buy them outright.”

R REDISTRICTING GAINS. The Times.

MEMBERS HIRING LOBBYISTS. Story here. “Three U.S. House members — including Eliot Engel, a Bronx Democrat — have hired lobbyists in Albany ahead of next year, when congressional lines will change to account for population shifts.”

CHAIR BAUERLY AT PUBLIC CITIZEN EVENT. Opensecrets.org has this report.

BIDEN RECUSAL. The Post. “Attorney general Beau Biden is recusing himself from an investigation of illegal campaign contributions to candidates for state office in Delaware.”

A LOOK AT THE EDWARDS PROSECUTION. The Post. “In the months before the indictment, the Justice Department took flak from government watchdogs for dropping corruption investigations of members of Congress. They argued that the government was not aggressive enough, and gun-shy from the collapse of its case against the late senator Ted Stevens.”

WHERE ARE WE CONGRESSIONAL ETHICS? The Hill. “More than two-thirds of voters think the ethical standards of politicians have declined over the past generation, and almost as many say Capitol Hill lawmakers are downright unscrupulous, according to the results of a new poll commissioned by The Hill.”

THE REELECT AND WALL STREET. The Times. “The event, organized by the Democratic National Committee, kicked off an aggressive push by Mr. Obama to win back the allegiance of one of his most vital sources of campaign cash — in part by trying to convince Wall Street that his policies, far from undercutting the investor class, have helped bring banks and financial markets back to health.”

TWITTER AND THE IMPACT OF CONTROVERSY. The Times. “In the days immediately after the Weiner revelations, according to the statisticians at TweetCongress, posts by Republicans went down 27 percent, while posts from Democrats dropped 29 percent. That’s too bad.”

LOBBYIST OR GRASSROOTS ACTIVIST? That’s the question in Nebraska. Here’s the story. “A complaint was filed Friday alleging that former state senator Mike Friend of Omaha, the director of the state chapter of the advocacy group Americans for Prosperity, had violated state sunshine laws by failing to file as a lobbyist. Such registration requires regular reporting of lobbying expenditures and activities.”

RHEE PLAYING IN CA. Michelle Rhee is a familiar name to most in the DC area for her work for the city’s schools. Now she’s in California and making news here. “Michelle Rhee has taken her first steps onto California’s political playing field, establishing a committee to make campaign contributions and hiring a lobbyist.”

DC LOVES THE 90′S. The Post. “More pointedly, some wonder whether the city is headed back toward the state of crisis in the period that included Mayor Marion Barry’s 1991 drug arrest and the 1995 congressional takeover of city government.” DC will hold hearings on a new ethics bill soon. Story here.

NYC TRAVEL REPORTING. The Times. “A city councilman from Queens, still frustrated that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg was nowhere to be found when a blizzard descended on New York last December, plans to introduce legislation next week that would require mayors to report any time they travel more than 250 miles from the city limits for longer than 24 hours, or leave the continental United States for any time at all.”

SAN FRANCISCO LOBBYING IN THE NEWS. The Times.

HAVE A GREAT DAY.

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