If the goal of campaign finance limitations was to remove the impact that any one group can make on an election, campaign finance rules as they stand fail miserably. The Mary Salas vs. Juan Vargas race for Senate District 40 is a perfect example of that. Pro-corporate groups spent more than $2 million to oppose Salas and support insurance lobbyist and former Assemblymember Vargas. But the problem isn’t just a matter of limiting campaign contributions. There’s a serious accountability flaw in the way campaign contributions are disclosed.

Big Oil and other polluters are bankrolling a deceptive smear campaign against state Senate candidate John Laird. Find out who the “Seniors Advocate League” and “JobsPAC” really are.

Two Texas-based oil companies have reportedly pledged up to $2 million to buy signatures for a ballot initiative to suspend California’s landmark global warming law. Neither has the guts to admit to it.

It figures. The four California refineries operated by these companies emit more pollution responsible for global warming than any other single facility in the state.

What can you do with $38 million? You can fund 577 teachers’ salaries for a year. You can fund the entire California Conservation Corps for a year and have a $3 million left over. You can even fund the operations of half of the state parks in California for a year to make the closure of state parks a problem for a different year… or you can fund two campaigns in the Republican primary for governor (well, some of it anyway).