Statement of Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer The three Republican Commissioners of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) once again have failed to discharge their duty to faithfully administer the campaign finance laws. By voting in the EMILY’s List case to block the recommendation of the FEC General Counsel to appeal the decision by a three-judge […]

The Washington PostJustices Split on Campaign Finance Court Will Debate Case This Fall Charles LaneSeptember 9, 2003 With the first caucuses and primaries of campaign 2004 bearing down on them, the justices of the Supreme Court convened yesterday for an unusual late-summer oral argument on campaign finance law, and when it was over, the four-hour […]

By Susan Crabtree  House Republican leaders won’t say whether they will scrap an ethics office if they regain the majority this fall.The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), established by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in 2008, has attracted criticism from Republicans and Democrats during the last couple of years. Most GOP lawmakers voted against the creation […]

By Kenneth P. Vogel If anyone had doubts about the role that anonymous and untraceable money will play in the 2012 campaign ad wars, a flurry of recent reports and voluntary disclosures should put them to rest. The full extent of the anonymous giving is by definition impossible to know. But the recent disclosures as […]

By Kenneth P. Vogel Karl Rove’s team and the Koch brothers’ operatives quietly coordinated millions of dollars in political spending in 2010, but that alliance, which has flown largely under the radar, is showing signs of fraying. And with each network planning to dwarf its 2010 effort, Republicans worry that the emerging rivalry between the […]