Federal Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle sentenced ex-congressman Bob Ney to 30 months in prison for accepting bribes in the form of trips, meals, and campaign contributions.  It was legal for Ney to accept campaign contributions, but his staff admitted that he took specific actions at the request of the donors.  Had he been slightly more savvy, and simply figured out on his own what donors wanted him to do in order to keep the checks pouring in, he would not have been caught.

See a story here in the LA Times.   

Missouri recently repealed all of its limits on campaign contributions and replaced them with a ban on fundraising during legislative sessions.  It was uncertain that this would have done much good, but now a judge has suspended the new session ban so there are no restrictions whatsoever.  The Kansas City Star reports 

The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by James Trout, a St. Louis-area Democrat who narrowly lost his bid to unseat an incumbent House Republican in November. Trout, who wanted to run in the future, argued that the new law was unfair because it prevented him from spending his own money on his campaign.

“I applaud the ruling,” Trout said Monday after the ruling. “This is a first step in removing the blackout period.”

The legal provision in question was part of a larger campaign finance and ethics package lawmakers passed last year. The law also removed campaign contribution limits, banned political parties from making cash contributions to candidates and required new disclosure requirements for lobbyists.

Cole County Circuit Judge Richard Callahan’s ruling temporarily blocks the ban on fundraising during the legislative session. Callahan set a March 2 hearing to consider whether to make his ruling permanent and whether to throw out the rest of the campaign finance law.