Dragging Big Business to Disclosure

Yesterday an editorial appeared in The New York Times entitled, ”Dragging Big Business to Disclosure.” The editorial deals with the requirements of the new lobbying disclosure law and also addresses the stalemate in confirming Commissioners to serve on the Federal Election Commission, which has resulted in the agency being inoperative since January 1, 2008. The New […]

National Journal: Health Reform’s Unending Money War

National JournalHealth Reform’s Unending Money WarBy Eliza Newlin Carney March 1, 2010 It’s too early to say how the messy, protracted health care debate will end. But one thing is already clear: It’s generated record lobbying expenditures. And like health care itself, the lobbying battle over health reform just keeps costing more. Health-care-related lobbying and […]

New York Times Editorial: The Secret Election

For all the headlines about the Tea Party and blind voter anger, the most disturbing story of this year’s election is embodied in an odd combination of numbers and letters: 501(c)(4). That is the legal designation for the advocacy committees that are sucking in many millions of anonymous corporate dollars, making this the most secretive […]

Editorials From The New York Times and Philadelphia Inquirer Support Disclosure

The New York Times Where Are the Good-Government Republicans? March 28, 2012 Senator John McCain recently denounced the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision as “naïve and politically ignorant,” telling Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, that “the consequences are manifesting themselves every day in what will someday be, sooner rather than later, a huge scandal.” […]

New York Times editorial: Follow the Money to the Floor

Three House members got word the other day that investigators have recommended that the ethics committee delve into their fund-raising from Wall Street donors — lucrative labors that happened to coincide precisely with some big votes on reforming Wall Street. Five other members were cleared in the same inquiry, raising the question of exactly what […]

Lexington-Herald Leader (KY) Editorial: McConnell’s hypocrisy on campaign disclosure

Lexington-Herald LeaderEditorialMitch McConnell believed in public disclosure related to campaign contributions in 1987. In a commentary published in the Herald-Leader, he lauded "post-Watergate disclosure laws" that help "flush out" politicians who "sacrifice duties or principles to get more money."Kentucky’s senior U.S. senator believed in disclosure in 1989 when he joined a Democratic colleague in introducing […]

POLITICO: New business plan: crushing Dems

By: Jeanne Cummings and Chris Frates Democrats may be going out of their way to say they aren’t anti-business, but business is gearing up to demonstrate that it’s anti-Democrats – at least when it comes to members of the party’s liberal wing. The latest blatant signs of hostility come from coal executives who are considering starting […]

The Hill: Lawmakers skip taxes on family travel

The HillLawmakers skip taxes on family travelBy Mike SoraghanFebruary 9, 2009 Many members of Congress may have a Tom Daschle problem. A week after the former senator withdrew his nomination for Health and Human Services secretary because of reports he didn’t pay taxes on a car and driver, lawmakers are facing their own tax questions. […]

The Los Angeles Times Editorial: Finish Campaign Reform

On Tuesday, the Republican Party smashed soft-money fund-raising records by wooing corporate chieftains at a dinner headlined by President Bush. About $30 million, the lion’s share of it soft money, was collected. If any further proof were needed of the importance of the campaign finance reform that Congress passed in March, the dinner provided it. […]

PRESS BRIEFING TOMORROW: New Proposal Seeks to Boost the Power of Small Donors After Citizens United

MEDIA ADVISORY for Wednesday, August 21, 2012 at 11:00 A.M. EST Contact: Kathryn Beard, 202-355-9600, kbeard@democracy21.org, Jeanine Plant-Chirlin, 646.292.8322, Jeanine.plant-chirlin@nyu.edu PRESS BRIEFING: New Proposal Seeks to Boost the Power of Small Donors After Citizens United New Plan Could Alter the Way We Finance Campaigns WASHINGTON, DC —On WEDNESDAY AUGUST 22, the Brennan Center for Justice and Democracy […]