The body which oversees campaign finance regulations in Ireland, the Standards in Public Office Commission, has called for reforms to force parties to “clean up their books,” the Independent reports. In particular, they want accountability for political party donations, spending prior to official electoral periods, and increased penalties for failure to comply with existing campaign finance [...]

The NYTimes reports that stringent new donation restrictions for NY city that expected to be signed into law by the mayor will apply to lobbyists and contractors, but not unions.
Under the bill, people who do business with the city could donate a maximum of $250 to City Council candidates and $400 to mayoral candidates. That cap would [...]

Earlier this month, the Carter Center and Transparency International released a report (spanish) on transparency of political finance in several Latin American countries. The Carter Center’s press release begins:
Berlin / Panama City – Political party and election campaign financing is a murky field in eight Latin American countries, according to a study released today by [...]

The SCOTUS made a predictable turn towards deregulating campaign finance in its decision today in the Wisconsin Right to Life case, which holds that companies and labor unions can make ads about issues during the last stages of election periods. The decision states regulators and courts should “give the benefit of the doubt to speech, not censorship” in determining whether ads [...]

A press release dated June 21 from the Standards in Public Office Commission of the Republic of Ireland begins:
Figures released today by the Standards Commission show that qualified political parties received €12,727,987 in direct funding from the Exchequer during 2006.
Six qualified parties (Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour, Sinn Féin, Progressive Democrats and the Green Party) [...]

The Associated Press reports (at KVOA.com):
The Arizona Legislature on Tuesday approved a bill to overhaul the state’s campaign finance system to address complaints from candidates running either with public funding or without.
…The bill includes sweeping changes that raises funding levels for participating candidates. It also loosens reporting requirements and raises contribution [...]

It’s another month and a half until candidates’ election expenses are due for the May 24th Irish general (Dail) elections, but if they’re reporting was anything like those of the previous election, we can expect them to reveal significant spending beyond the expenditure limits. For the 2002 elections, 56 candidates reported spending in excess of [...]

…in New York City to “ban donations from businesses in the city and would cap campaign contributions from lobbyists and entities with at least $100,000 worth of business before the city” and in the state of New York.
… in Pennsylvania to “to bring Pennsylvania’s fund-raising guidelines into line with standards for federal [...]

The Jakarta Post writes:
Legislators from several political parties are busy collecting political support to back a motion urging the House of Representatives to make an official statement on the alleged use of illegal funds during the 2004 presidential election.
The 18 legislators said their motion is aimed at having law enforcers investigate [...]

Another report critical of the compliance with and completeness of campaign finance regulations in Armenia was released on May 31. (See sidebar for link to an earlier report concerned with the accuracy of campaign finance disclosures). Eurasianet.org writes:
Meanwhile, one local non-government organization is taking issue with another aspect of the parliamentary vote — campaign [...]

The Sunlight Foundation has launched a campaign to pressure Sen. McConnell to help the legislation see the light of day: http://www.whatsmcconnellhiding.com/.