Mayday, the SuperPAC formed by Lawrence Lessig to work for public funding of congressional campaigns, will announce how it will spend its resources this year on July 21. Mayday has raised $12,000,000, and it will spend the money this year on independent expenditures on behalf of five congressional candidates who will pledge to work for a public funding bill in Congress in 2015.

This Washington Post article mentions some of the wealthy individuals who have contributed to Mayday. It is notable that Peter Thiel, who is considered to be libertarian in his views, and who has supported Ron Paul, is among those who is contributing to Mayday.

The 2014 spending will only be on behalf of Democratic and/or Republican candidates for Congress. Thanks to the Center for Competitive Politics for the link.

On July 15, Chris McDaniel won a Mississippi lower state court order to see the poll books in Jackson County. McDaniel is trying to show that the number of voters who voted in the Democratic primary of June 3, and then voted in the Republican run-off primary on June 24, exceeds the number of votes by which McDaniel lost the run-off primary. See this story. Jackson County contains Pascagoula. It is the fifth most populous county in the state.

UPDATE: see this July 16 story about McDaniel’s plans to challenge the results as soon as he finishes gathering evidence.

The Oregon Secretary of State says the initiative petition for a top-two system is valid, and the measure will appear on the November 2014 ballot. This article says that proponents have already raised $547,300, although they have spent most of it on paid circulators.

Proponents’ slogan seems to be that the initiative treats all voters equally, a claim that is not true. If the top-two measure is passed, based on how it works in California and Washington, registered Democrats will almost always be able to vote for a member of their party in November. In most elections, Republicans will also. But members of minor parties won’t be able to vote for members of their party in November. Thus the idea doesn’t treat all voters equally. Almost 7% of Oregon’s voters are members of minor parties.