Happy New Year everyone! After a few days off for the holidays the Sunlight staff is all back in the office. Here are a few links that I didn’t get to post about over the last few weeks:

1) Ryan Grimm and Arthur Delaney write one of the best exposes of political influence of the year. This deep, inside look into the House Financial Services Committee and the lobbying influence surrounding and infecting it is absolutely must-read material and will definitely be something that readers should come back to over and over as the House and Senate debate financial sector reform in the coming months.

2) The Washington Times writes about potential straw donors in the lobbying corruption case of former PMA Group head Paul Magliocchetti.

3) The Federal Election Commission releases all enforcement data going back to its founding (1975).

4) Roll Call: “…the going rate for key Senate Democratic aides runs about $400,000 to $500,000.” That’s between 3x to 5x what these staffers make in government.