Under the law, advertisements for candidates are supposed to be paid with "hard" or "federal" money -- that is, donations limited by law and matched by federal money.
The city also exercises rigorous oversight and imposes strict rules, including bans on corporate donations, limits on donations from people with business before the city and debate requirements for citywide candidates.
Its genesis can be traced to the dying days of the Keneally Labor government in 2010, when the New South Wales parliament rejected Australia's traditionally laissez-faire approach to regulating campaign finance and adopted caps on political donations, limits on election spending and increased public funding.
Roemer, who raised $138,000 in the third quarter on donations limited to $100 or less, listed one $25 contribution from someone who identified himself as the beer-loving cartoon character, complete with a job described as "Nuclear Safety Inspector" at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant.
Stephen had donated prodigiously to his brother but appeared to have reached the donation limit.
"We need to understand whether $25 is the ideal donation limit for mobile campaigns," said Jenifer Snyder, executive director of the mGive Foundation.
A few days later, Mr. Bush sent an urgent appeal for money to fight back, setting an individual donation limit of $5,000.
In a sign that the McCain-Feingold coalition could still fracture, the Senate began debate on a proposal by Senator Fred Thompson, Republican of Tennessee, to raise the individual donation limit to $2,500 and the cumulative two-year limit to $100,000.
Rules governing the new 527s were vague, and the Federal Election Commission did a poor job of designating which groups were subjected to a $5,000 donation limit as "political action committees".
Until then, Toobin offers a bit of advice for the wealthy donors who previously used the donation limit as an excuse to slip away from fund-raisers: "Change your phone number".
