Oh no! Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) isn't running for re-election! A Fair Elections supporter, Frank once said, "We’re the only people I know who are expected to take large amounts of money from perfect strangers and have it have no effect on our behavior." Here's the Globe story on his departure: http://www.boston.com/news/politics/articles/2011/11/29/barney_frank_potent_political_force_and_master_of_one_liners/?p1=News_links.

Campaign Finance/Fair Elections
Advocacy groups seek to curb corporations
Eliza Newlin Carney writes about all the constitutional amendment efforts--United Republic, Wolf PAC, Move to Amend, We the People, Free Speech for People, etc.

Four ways the FEC could rule on uncoordinated coordination by American Crossroads
TPM games out the four different ways the FEC could go on American Crossroads request to coordinate filming "uncoordinated" advertisements with federal candidates.

As White House candidates abandon public funding, Republicans look to end system
The House will vote on a bill this week that would abolish presidential public financing--the bill would also end the Election Assistance Commission.

Congress/2012
Mastermind of $850,000 smear campaign against Occupy Wall Street co-hosting Mitt Romney fundraiser
One of the lobbyists who authored that memo for the American Bankers Association suggesting ways to discredit OWS will host another fundraiser for Mitt Romney soon.

Jack Abramoff doesn't care if reformers think he's sincere
Do read this Ryan Reilly interview with Jack Abramoff.

Will the 2012 election by anti-incumbent? Maybe, but it's not yet in the numbers
Just released report from Campaign Finance Institute: "The money figures show that the best-funded challenger in each House district had raised about 25 percent as much as the incumbents they were hoping to defeat.  This is not very different from the past three elections, when there was both a big turnover and a strong partisan tide"

Ethics extends Hastings, Young probes
"The House Ethics Committee is extending a probe into possible ethics violations by Reps. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) and Don Young (R-Alaska)." Hastings, likely, on allegations he sexually harassed a staffer and Young for possible campaign finance violations.

Parties contest election-monitoring techniques
I think this is my favorite line from this article on Tea Party "poll watchers:" "Engelbrecht said the volunteers reported 800 “polling place incidents,” some of which she said were certain voter fraud. The complaints were filed with the county, which investigated some of them but did not pursue legal action."

Obama takes Manhattan
Obama is hosting 3 fundraisers in NYC on Wednesday.

Political advertisements go mobile for 2012 elections
"Geo-targeted mobile advertising, which made its debut among political campaigns during the 2010 midterms but is just now becoming more widespread, offers presidential campaigns an attention-getting new way to stalk voters wherever they may be found — the state fair, the ballgame or the caucus site."

Maxine Waters lobbies for top Financial Services slot
Waters wants Barney Frank's spot on Financial Services, but, "Can they make Rep. Maxine Waters the ranking Democrat on the financial services committee despite her ongoing ethics problems?"

Protesters' charges to be dropped
Love this line from a guy in Occupy Omaha who decided to protest because of Citizens United: "If you call a corporation a person, then, yeah, we're stepping on people's toes. I want to step all over Wells Fargo's toes."

Other
3 Perdue associates indicted
Oops: "A Wake County grand jury today handed down indictments alleging that a top aide to Gov. Bev Perdue's 2008 campaign schemed to pay a staffer $32,000 for work that was kept off the books in violation of state election laws."

Public financing of Ill. elections debated
An election reform task forum, featuring Public Campaign board member WIlliam McNary, is talking public financing in Illinois.

ALEC's firm hold on the Arizona legislature
A new report from Common Cause and PFAW on ALEC and the Arizona legislature.

O'Malley DGA fundraising: The appearance of conflict
Some pushback in Maryland on the recent story about donations flooding into Gov. Martin O'Malley's Democratic Governors Association. "The only real chance to cure what ails the system on the federal, state and local levels is to institute public campaign finance."