Now that the Jan. 31 filing deadline with the Federal Election Commission has come and gone, media outlets have had time to pour over the paperwork and discover how large a role “super PACs” are playing in this year’s presidential race. The short answer: Pretty large.

The New York Times reports about 60 corporations and wealthy individuals gave checks of $100,000 or more to a super PAC supporting Mitt Romney in the months leading up to the Iowa caucuses, underwriting a $17 million blitz of advertising in the early primary states.  

Despite its founder’s insistence Thursday that reaction had been mostly favorable, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure charity abruptly reversed course today and is restoring funding for Planned Parenthood.

The Los Angeles Times reports Nancy G. Brinker, Komen's founder and CEO, said that the breast cancer foundation's decision to halt funding to providers who were under investigation was not done for political reasons and was not meant to penalize Planned Parenthood specifically.  

He might not be the incumbent, but Brad Wenstrup said details contained in the latest campaign finance reports show he has more grassroots support among the GOP faithful than U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Miami Township).

Wenstrup is challenging Schmidt in the March 6 Republican primary for the right to be the party’s candidate for the Ohio 2nd Congressional District seat in November.  

The big news breaking the Internets is that Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the nation’s leading breast cancer charity, is pulling its grants from Planned Parenthood affiliates. The charity gave about $680,000 last year and $580,000 in 2010, which is mostly used to provide free breast exams for low-income women.  

The push to privatize services traditionally provided by government is the focus of a community forum slated for next week.

Since the Reagan era, privatization — or the outsourcing of public services to the private sector — has been touted as a way to make government more efficient and less costly. Critics, however, allege it is a form of union-busting that often leads to lower wages for workers and reduced accountability to the public.  

A recent plodding column by The Enquirer’s Krista Ramsey asked the red herring question in its headline, “So what if Tebow believes his audience is God?” Tebow, of course, refers to Tim Tebow, the quarterback for the Denver Broncos who has a tendency to dramatically kneel down on the gridiron, close his eyes and pray before games.

Tebow’s showy, ultra-demonstrative displays have drawn some criticism. Although the player says he does it to honor God and get nonbelievers curious about his faith, many people counter the display is more about drawing attention to Tebow than to any divine entity or creed.  

Mitt Romney won a sizable victory in Tuesday’s Florida primary, capturing 46.4 percent of the vote to Newt Gingrich’s 31.9 percent. In all, Romney got 240,548 more votes than the ex-House Speaker.

“The size and breadth of Romney’s win provide the first real evidence that he has the potential to coalesce a party that has been deeply split …” wrote Karen Tumulty in an analysis for The Washington Post.  

It’s got to if we want to preserve any semblance of a functioning democracy in our nation. “It” is overturning the U.S. Supreme Court’s dreadful Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling. The decision undid nearly a century’s worth of campaign finance regulation in the United States.   

The state representative Alicia Reece has introduced a bill that would reduce the number of reasons for making voters cast provisional ballots and also clarifies that election officials will be held responsible for errors instead of blaming voters.  

What’s up with politicians claiming ignorance of the law? Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich has run afoul of Survivor (the ‘80s band, not the TV show) for using its song, “Eye of the Tiger,” without the band’s permission while campaigning.

Of course, numerous other candidates in recent years have faced similar dilemmas including Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Perhaps they all have a sense of entitlement.