When you have to raise so much money to win an election, sometimes it's easy to let excess campaign contributions slide. Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) will have to pay about $100,000 in fines for receiving more than $313,000 in excessive campaign contributions in his 2004 election bid.

Well we have a decision from the FEC on whether Sen. John McCain broke the rules when abruptly backed out of the presidential public financing system for the primary race. In a widely anticipated move the six commissioners at the Federal Election Commission voted unanimously to sign off on McCain's opt-out.

NPR's Marketplace reported on the pending decision by the Federal Election Commission on whether John McCain broke the rules when he opted in, then opted out of the presidential public financing program for the primary election. David Donnelly, of Public Campaign Action Fund's Campaign Money Watch project comments on the controversy here.

Now that controversial FEC nominee Hans von Spakovsky has withdrawn his name from consideration for a commissioner slot with the campaign finance oversight body, the Democrats who opposed his nomination are working fast to get a new slate of nominees ready and confirmed. The FEC, which oversees among other things the presidential public financing program, has been unable to issue binding decisions for some time because it lacked a quorum of commissioners. Hey, better late than never.

The New York Times calls shenanigans on doings at the Federal Election Commission: as Senate Republicans, led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) champion the nomination of Hans von Spakovsky who's well-known for his opposition to voting rights legislation, current FEC chairman David Mason is fired after he suggest Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) may have broken the law in his efforts to extricate himself from the presidential public financing system.

Pundits and press folks have been understandably distracted by many other stories surrounding the presidential race, but despite the fact that the debate over public financing in the general election has died down somewhat, the fact remains that the Federal Election Commission is still short the necessary number of commissioners it needs to do its job, and that's just begging for trouble down the line.