Paul Blumenthal for HuffPo:

While it may seem quixotic to push for campaign finance reform while previously set restrictions are falling left and right, ordinary citizens are rallying around the issue of money in politics in a way not seen in many years. What had once been a cause limited to a niche group of good-government types in Washington has grown into a broad coalition. The Sierra Club, the NAACP, Greenpeace and the Communications Workers of America — four of the largest membership groups in the country — have begun to invest time and resources in supporting campaign finance reform for the first time. And a new breed of reformers are pushing new arguments to highlight the issue and bring conservatives and disaffected voters into the fold.

More than anything else, however, reformers believe they have finally cracked the code for changing the way politicians raise money. The key, they say, is to encourage candidates’ political activity and increase the voice of small donors in the fundraising system.

“The notion that we’re simply going to regulate the big money out by establishing limits has faded,” said Nick Nyhart, president and CEO of Public Campaign, one of the groups rallying around this new effort. “People are saying, well, you might need those regulations, but that alone is not going to do what you need to get people in. So there has been a big shift in that.”