A top House Democrat is taking legal steps to force the names of political donors to be disclosed.

Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen filed a lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission Thursday, challenging a regulation allowing independent groups spending money on political campaigns to shield the identities of their donors.

Van Hollen's lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Washington.

Since a Supreme Court ruling last year cleared the way for corporations and independent groups to spend freely on campaign activity, many have done so using money from anonymous donors.

Van Hollen said that practice violated an existing law requiring donor disclosure.

Jeffrey Immelt, the head of GE, is facing backlash from left-leaning groups who say that he shouldn’t be on the White House Jobs Council or any other panel in light of reports that the company last year made $14.2 billion in profit, paid zero in corporate federal taxes and actually received a $3.2 billion tax benefit.

GE disputes that claim and says it did pay all kinds of taxes last year, though notably, not federal taxes. But it also claims that it didn’t pay because it took hits for investment and other spending that is exactly what the tax code allows and is encouraged to help job creation.

Whatever the case, the optics are bad news for GE, which is facing increasing anger from the likes of former Wisconsin Sen. Feingold, MoveOn and even Jon Stewart.

In January, Obama named Immelt to head his new Council on Jobs and Competitiveness as part of an effort to improve the White House's strained relationship with the business community. Now Obama's relationship with liberals is on the rocks.

Bucking a national trend of raising cigarette taxes, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Rhode Island have considered reducing theirs, hoping to draw smokers from other states and increase revenue.

Supporters argue reducing the tax by a dime would make New Hampshire more competitive with Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts, while opponents say that even if the state experienced higher sales as a result it still would lose millions of dollars in revenue.

It's very unusual for states to lower the tax, University of Illinois at Chicago economics professor Frank Chaloupka says. The increase in sales isn't enough to offset the drop in state tax revenue, he says.

Instead of lowering the tax, states have enacted 100 increases over the past decade, he says.

"New Hampshire has been going in the same direction as the rest of the country, basically forever," Chaloupka said.

New Hampshire raised its tax repeatedly since Democratic Gov. John Lynch took office in 2006, increasing it from 52 cents per pack in 2005 to $1.78 currently.

That changed Thursday, when the state House passed a bill that would cut the rate 10 cents to $1.68 per pack in hopes of attracting smokers from surrounding states with higher taxes. Rhode Island's bill would cut its tax by $1, to $2.46 per pack. New Jersey last year considered reducing its tax 30 cents, to $2.40 per pack, but hasn't followed through on it.

New Hampshire Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Morse says he believes the Senate will support the cut.