How do you circumvent donation limits and exploit a matching donation program to boot? Ask the real estate developers who "launder" contributions to the Los Angeles mayor and city council as explored this report by the local NBC affiliate (transcript and video available).

Everyone is chewing over the bundler problem -- both in terms of the influence they exert over, and the potential liability they can be to candidates. Some preach better background research on where the money is coming from and some, like the Hartford Courant, counsel more sweeping reform.

From the Courant:

This one's a bit of a head-scratcher. The Los Angeles Times compares Norman Hsu to Oprah Winfrey to illustrate the point that not all campaign bundlers are crooks. And while I grant them that premise I don't buy that just because some bundlers are good people, bundling is a good thing.

Now that the Norman Hsu story has lifted the veil on the criminals past, present, and potential filling out the donor rolls of presidential contenders the Washington Post takes the opportunity to point to a few familiar, nefarious names giving big to Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, and John Edwards among others. As for the candidates, they're stuck choosing between a credible campaign and question-free cash.

Republican presidential candidates are turning down invitations to participate in debates sponsored by black and Hispanic organizations and and institutions leading critics to questions whether the party is interested in courting votes from those constituencies. The candidates say they're not ignoring minorities, they're just too busy fundraising. Which, as it happens, means largely ignoring minorities.

How alarming it would be to arrrive at your home in the Hamptons after the drive from Manhattan only to find a presidential candidate pop up from behind a well-groomed hedge and ask for a campaign check. Actually, that'd be hilarious. Less hilarious for many vacationers, however, are the fundraisers for candidates that have wiggled onto the summer social schedule as candidates and their chief supporters struggle to find every last dollar.

A big loophole allows corporations to pour money into the Democratic and Republican nominating conventions in exchange for access to lawmakers. The Denver Post examines the scramble for money in the 2008 host cities, Denver and Minneapolis and finds discomfort among both those raising the money and those giving it about what is going on.

Awareness is growing of the negative public attitudes towards the mingling of money and enhanced access to public officials:

This article in The Columbus Dispatch is full of reasons why Congress needs to pass the Fair Elections Now Act and implement full public financing of elections. Lobbyists are dodging fundraising calls, lawmakers are wary of new regulations on their relationships with lobbyists, and voter advocates all over are crying foul on the access lobbyists can buy with campaign cash.

Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post writes today about a new tool she's rolling out called FundRace which is aiming to promote campaign finance transparency by offering a user-friendly way to look at publicly available fundraising data by neighborhood.

For those corporations whose executives and PACs view campaign contributions as just the tip of the iceberg, there's always shelling out for a party convention, as this USA Today article notes looking ahead to the 2008 nominating conventions in Denver and Minneapolis-St. Paul. Corporations says it's just a matter of "civic pride" but it looks suspiciously like access-buying to many.