We've had our go at the Wall Street crisis and the role of campaign contributions in leading to it , now the Center for Responsive Politics wants to hear from you. They've a partnered with Helium on a writing contest about the Wall Street crisis and if your story is selected, you could win $100 for your work. 

A familiar face here on the Paid for by... blog, embattled Rep. William Jefferson's (D-LA) political fortunes survived another day and he'll head to a runoff against Helena Moreno on November 4th.

Kelly Williams and Laura MacCleery of the Brennan Center write up an extensive analysis for The Hill's Congress Blog of the role campaign cash played in engineering the current economic crisis we find ourselves in, and why Fair and Clean Elections policy must be enacted at the federal level to safeguard against history repeating itself.

The Wall Street Journal wonders whether Wall Street denizens are upset that all their campaign contributions to Congress through the years, and their recent generosity to Sens. McCain and Obama haven't yet bought them their bailout. Congress is still bickering over the $700 billion check they're about to write, and the financial services industry is left wondering just how much it takes to buy a favor around here.

Katrina vanden Heuvel at The Nation calls out Congress for rushing a bailout for their donor friends on Wall Street who pushed for the deregulation that led to the current crisis.  When Wall Street comes calling, they get $700 billion, no strings attached -- when the average homeowner finds herself in foreclosure Congress drags its heels to help her.  Welcome to donation-driven politics.

Another big day for Fair Elections in Congress.  This morning Rep. John Larson (D-CT), Vice Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, and Rep. Walter Jones Jr. (R-NC) introduced the House version of the Fair Elections Now Act (HB 7022).  This bill is the counterpart to the Fair Elections Now Act (2 1285) introduced in the Senate by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Arlen Specter (R-PA).  This bicameral, bipartisan coalition in support of full public financing for congressional races represents a big step forward for our efforts.