The BBC reports:
Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander has resigned “with deep regret” after breaking rules on declaring donations.
It came as she faced a one-day ban from Holyrood after failing to register donations to her leadership campaign.
It seems she failed to declare about £10,000:
She later updated her register with details of 10 donors, who each gave […]

Pinto-Duschinsky’s report done for Policy Exchange makes several headlines, including: Public subsidies to MPs ‘rising’, Low-level party funding ‘a myth’ and Parties ’spend less fighting elections than 40 years ago’.

The Globe and Mail reports:
TORONTO — Ontario’s two opposition parties went heavily into debt during last fall’s election campaign in an unsuccessful attempt to oust the governing Liberals, documents show.
The Progressive Conservative Party spent nearly twice as much as it raised, leaving it with a deficit of $2.9-million, according to election finance records released yesterday.
All […]

A ”puntero” folding ballots and collecting money. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-jPHuYlyls 

The NYTimes reports today:  
Taking advantage of his financial edge, Senator Barack Obama is buying large amounts of advertising and building extensive get-out-the-vote operations in an effort to end Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s candidacy with twin defeats Tuesday in Ohio and Texas.  
The intensity of Mr. Obama’s drive is especially apparent on television, where he has […]

Clarín (spanish) writes that the cross-province fragmentation of parties - which serve as “collectors” and resource supporters for the national candidates - mask the expenditures spent by each coalition. It also recognizes the huge disparity in expenditures for November’s election between the government and opposition coalitions ($17M for Cristina Fernandez’s Frente para Victoria versus $5.7M for Elisa Carrió’s Coalición […]

Yesterday, the BBC reported:
Tory leader David Cameron and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg are among 14 MPs facing a reprimand for declaring donations too late.
The Electoral Commission notes a £7,285 helicopter flight donated to Mr Cameron in 2005 and six donations worth £14,490 to Mr Clegg, dating back to 2006.
MPs have to register donations over £1,000 […]

Tranparency International in Paraguay criticized the presidential candidates, Latinnews.com reports: “On 19 February a local NGO said that so far only presidential front-runner Fernando Lugo had agreed to publish his campaign accounts.”

The leftwing coalition FMLN in El Salvador asked the (rightwing) president Antonio Saca to support its proposal for campaign finance reforms a few days after the US accused the FMLN of receiving Venezuelan campaign finance in anticipation of next year’s presidential and congressional elections. AFP’s report (spanish) has no information about any details in the proposal.  

In “Stealthy Groups Shake Up Races“, The Wall Street Journal writes about the various outside organizations that are spending lots of money this election outside of candidates and their campaigns:

Since the 2002 campaign-finance reforms, people who want to influence elections have looked for new ways. Most of their early organizations, like the Swift Boat group, […]

From Vermont, another take: “Campaign finance reform bill moving quickly through Legislature”
From Louisianna, an opinion: ”Jindal Ethics Flap Demands Louisiana Campaign Finance Reform”
From Minnesota, an explanation: ”The state reimburses some political donations.” Here, it is explained that citizens can get reimbursements for contributions made to candidates and parties (including the DFL - the Democratic-Farmer-Labour party).
The money comes […]

Another Labour MP and cabinet secretary, Alan Johnson, is being examined for undeclared donations. These apparently from his brother-in-law for a contest for Labour’s deputy leadership contest, reports the BBC.  

Gordon Brown’s Work and Pensions Secretary, Peter Hain, is being reviewed by the Electoral Commission as the legality of his taking and failing to register donations from a ‘think tank’ that may not deserve the name - it has never published anything.

El Universal (spanish) reports that political parties’ operating expenses cost in the neighborhood of US$2B over the past 11 years and rose faster than inflation over the period.

Democrats trying to figure out how to pay campaign consultants, the NYTimes reports.

“Fundraising Central: Majority of Presidential Bundlers and Other Fundraisers Hail from Only Five U.S. Industries: Lawyers and Law Firms, Three Finance Industries, and Real Estate,” CFI reports.

The rules governing presidential elections in Kenya, which require a candidate to have a majority as well as a parliamentary district and 25% of the vote in at least 5/8 regions, have focused attention on the main contender’s parliamentary district. The intense competition in the district has exacerbated (at least) the vote buying in the district, […]

Afriquenligne reports:
Kenyan political parties have spent a massive US$ 20 million to fund campaigns for their presidential and parliamentary candidates ahead of the 27 December elections, a UN-funded political expenditure monitoring report revealed here Monday.
The article also discusses several instances of political finance malpractice, especially the use of government resources for campaigning purposes.
The press release by the […]

The $800k that was found by Argetine customs officials in August, which was subsequently said to have been contributions from the Venezuelan government to Cristina Fernandez’s presidential campaign and led to firings and resignations in the Argentine government and in the Argentine branch of the Venezuelan oil company, has erupted into a larger international row […]

This week Feingold and collaborators released more information about their designs to resurrect the public financing system for presidential candidates, reports The Trail. The details:
The legislation would dramatically increase the amount of matching funds candidates received during the presidential primaries. Right now, candidates who opt to accept public financing (only John Edwards and Tom Tancredo […]