Today, New Mexico’s own US Sen. Tom Udall (D) brought some fresh, reformist air to the Senate Rules Committee. Here’s Udall on the need, recently obviated by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, for overhauling campaign finance:

Udall’s “ideal solution,” he says, is a constitutional amendment—the only way to truly curb corporations’ ability to weigh in heavily on political campaigns—but he says he plans to introduce a bill anyway. The forthcoming bill, Udall says, “makes fundamental, wholesale changes” to campaign finance and “contains a finding that America’s faith in the election system has been fundamentally corrupted by big money from outside interest groups.”

Yeah, Udall! Let’s hope this doesn’t somehow get twisted into a partisan showdown. Here’s the kicker: “It’s my hope that the high court’s disappointing decision will provide the push we need to put elections back in the hands of average Americans.”

SFR made a shocking discovery at lunchtime: There is life outside the Roundhouse!

New Mexico’s newest US Senator, Tom Udall, was on the Rachel Maddow show last night talking about his anti-filibuster proposal. Watch:

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Update 4:44 pm, Jan. 14: Hi, HuffPo readers. Check out our follow-up to this story here.

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Regular SFR readers may remember the name Arthur Firstenberg. He’s the “electrosensitive” activist who has campaigned against wi-fi in public buildings and, more recently, against digital television broadcasts.

Firstenberg claims that the low-level electromagnetic radiation emitted by cell phones and other modern gadgets makes him, and others “sensitive” to radio waves, suffer terribly. The side-effects of exposure, he believes, include “nausea, vertigo, diarrhea, ringing in the ears, severe headaches and body aches, crippling joint pains, insomnia, impaired vision, impaired muscular control” and other ailments, some potentially deadly.

In the past, he has taken his case to City Hall, where he found a polite if unreceptive audience.

Now, Firstenberg wants a judge to stop his neighbor from using her iPhone, her wireless internet and her laptop charger, saying the radiation has forced him from his home.

He also wants $530,000 in damages, including $100,000 for pain and suffering.

The lawsuit was filed Jan. 4 at the First Judicial District Court in Santa Fe. Firstenberg’s attorney, Lindsay Lovejoy, Jr, is a graduate of Harvard and Yale, as well as a former Assistant New Mexico Assistant Attorney General who has argued cases alongside now-US Sen. Tom Udall, D-NM.

Read more about this bizarre lawsuit after the cut. We’ll update this post as we learn more.

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The Sunlight Foundation and the Center for Responsive Politics have released an extremely timely and thorough expose,
“Curious Clusters“, involving “hidden” Congressional campaign contribution bundling by health care special interests. Here’s their 1-2-3 on the investigation:

The investigation identified outside lobbyists that donated to the same members of Congress as their clients, and strongly suggests that special interest giving is enhanced by the K Street contributors they hire…

There is no indication that the extra giving by lobbyists was part of a planned effort by the healthcare firms to solidify their support among key members of Congress. But whether coordinated or not, the newly-found clusters of lobbyist giving clearly illustrate the intensity of the full-court press that the industry is currently waging on Capitol Hill.

In all, 61 members of Congress—39 in the Senate, 22 in the House, 38 Democrats and 23 Republicans—got money from 10 or more outside lobbyists whose healthcare or health insurance industry clients also contributed to their campaigns.

Sen. Max Baucus, the Senate Finance Committee chairman who recently voted down two public-option amendments, was the third largest recipient after Republicans Sen. John McCain and Sen. Mitch McConnell. (click the chart to enlarge). Of the 61 members, only two New Mexican names turn up: Sen. Tom Udall and Rep. Martin Heinrich, both Democrats.

According to the research, Udall accepted $2,250 from two health-related organizations—Roche Holdings and UnitedHealth—which was then “enhanced”  ten-fold by $22,700 in donations from 21 lobbyists. Heinrich accepted $2,250 from Amgen, which was then amplified by $9,850 from 11 lobbyists.

Sen. Jeff Bingaman, one of the original “gang of six” assigned to hash out a health reform bill and one of the eight Senate Finance members to vote for both public option amendments, was not one of the 61 Congressmen. Nor was Rep. Ben R. Lujan or Rep. Harry Teague.

Here’s the latest from the attorneys for Frank Foy, the former state investment official who claims he was forced out of a job for declining to invest public money with a company that had donated to Gov. Bill Richardson’s political campaigns:

In a motion mailed for filing yesterday, Foy’s attorneys ask that New Mexico’s First Judicial District Court find former Richardson political consultant Amanda Cooper in contempt for failing to comply with a February subpoena. Cooper is US Sen. Tom Udall’s daughter and a major behind-the-scenes player in New Mexico Democratic politics.

In exhibits appended to Foy’s filing, attorneys for Cooper said that the documents requested from a defunct Richardson foundation, for which Cooper served as executive director, were irrelevant to Foy’s case. Foy’s lawyers argue that Richardson’s Moving America Forward Foundation “was a conduit or vehicle for making kickbacks…while perhaps making the kickbacks tax deductible.”

Here’s a PDF copy of the filing by Foy’s attorney, Victor Marshall of Albuquerque. Cooper is represented by Joseph E Sandler of Washington, DC.

Marshall’s wants the foundation to hand over financial records within three days, but the court may reject his motion.