News
It goes without saying that our campaign finance system is completely broken. We haven’t seen this kind of big money flooding into our political system since the Robber Baron era. According to data from the Center for Responsive Politics: – The top ten donors and their spouses have given more than $100 million; – Eighty-nine […]
Democracy 21 and the Campaign Legal Center sent a letter today to FEC Commissioners challenging the agency’s failure to adopt regulations to implement the restricted national party accounts enacted in December 2014 and warning about the consequences of this failure. Congress snuck a rider into a session-ending Omnibus Appropriations bill in 2014 that authorized […]
The Huffington Post Eight Lessons We’ve Learned About Money in Politics This Election By: Fred Wertheimer May 26, 2016 As we approach the end of the primary season, here are eight money-in-politics lessons we have learned midpoint in the elections. 1. The Supreme Court majority did not have a clue about what it was doing […]
In a letter sent today, reform groups urged members of Congress to oppose all “poison pill” riders, including all campaign finance riders, to the fiscal year 2017 Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) Appropriations bill. The groups included the Brennan Center for Justice, the Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause, CREW, Democracy 21, League […]
Today, House Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee opened the door to foreign money being illegally spent in federal elections through nonprofit groups. On a party line vote, the Committee voted to report a bill introduced by Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) that would eliminate the existing requirement for 501(c) nonprofit groups to disclose to […]
In a letter sent today, reform groups urged members of the House Ways and Means Committee to vote against Rep. Peter Roskam’s bill to eliminate the current requirement for 501(c) groups to make non-public disclosure of their donors to the IRS. The bill is scheduled to be marked up by the committee on Thursday. The […]
The Commission’s Actions, in Dismissing Five Straw Donor Complaints, Were “Arbitrary, Capricious and An Abuse of Discretion and Otherwise Contrary to the Law” Democracy 21 and the Campaign Legal Center filed a lawsuit Friday night in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against the Federal Election Commission for dismissing five complaints that CLC […]
The Huffington Post A Cure for a Political Disaster: Fixing the Presidential Public Financing System By: Fred Wertheimer April 20, 2016 The current system of financing presidential elections is a political disaster. And the American people are paying the price. According to Open Secrets, super PACs supporting presidential candidates have raised $416 million as of […]
Former Virginia Governor Can’t Use First Amendment Cases to Escape Bribery Conviction, Groups Tell Supreme Court Adopting McDonnell’s Arguments Would Substitute Kleptocracy for Democracy, Say Public Citizen and Democracy 21 Former Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell is wrong to use two recent U.S. Supreme Court campaign finance rulings to argue that his conviction on bribery charges […]
Democracy 21, Public Citizen and the Campaign Legal Center joined today in filing an amicus brief defending the constitutionality of the ban on parties using soft money in federal elections. The brief was filed in Republican Party of Louisiana v. Federal Election Commission, a case pending before a three-judge panel of the U.S. District […]
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