News

Democracy 21 President Slams FEC Advisory Opinion Request From Democratic Super PACs

 Today, Democracy 21 joined the Campaign Legal Center in strongly urging the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to reject the request from Senate Majority PAC and House Majority PAC to follow the lead of a number of GOP Super PACs in breaking a variety of laws through coordinated activities with candidates.  The watchdog groups filed comments […]

California Adopts Strong New Anti-Coordination Rules; Similar Approach Used in Democracy 21 Model Bill

  The California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) last week adopted strong new rules to prevent coordination between outside spending groups and the California candidates they are supporting. The new FPPC rules are designed to protect the integrity of candidate contribution limits in the wake of the Supreme Court’s disastrous Citizens United decision. Coordination between […]

How Chief Justice Roberts and Four Supreme Court Colleagues Gave the Nation a System of Legalized Bribery

Fred Wertheimer for Huffington Post The Supreme Court began its fall term this week. This seems like a good time to pause for a moment and revisit how decisions by Chief Justice John Roberts and four of his Supreme Court colleagues during the past five years have given the nation a system of legalized bribery. […]

O’Malley Issues Strong Campaign Finance Reform Plan, But Fails to Address Presidential Financing

Former Governor Martin O’Malley issued a strong campaign finance reform plan today that addresses a number of  important campaign finance issues. They include creating a public financing system for congressional races based on matching small contributions and addressing the dysfunctional campaign finance enforcement system by restructuring and strengthening the Federal Election Commission and making enforcement […]

Fred Wertheimer for Huffington Post: “IRS Appears Headed Toward New Rules that Will Continue to License Secret Contributions in Federal Elections”

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen appears to be headed toward issuing new IRS regulations that will continue to license section 501(c)(4) groups to improperly launder massive amounts of secret contributions into federal elections. In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Commissioner Koskinen reportedly stated that section 501(c)(4) groups can engage in political intervention so long as […]

Fred Wertheimer for Huffington Post: “Government Corruption Is and Remains the Fundamental Danger of Individual-Candidate Super PACs”

The Huffington Post Government Corruption Is and Remains the Fundamental Danger of Individual-Candidate Super PACs By: Fred Wertheimer  Governor Scott Walker and former Governor Rick Perry dropping out so early in the Republican presidential primary race has raised questions about whether individual-candidate Super PACs are as big a problem as originally believed. (Both Walker and Perry […]

Fred Wertheimer for Huffington Post: “National Political Parties Walk Away From Ordinary Americans to Chase Super Rich for Million Dollar Donations”

  An article published yesterday by The Washington Post, revealed that the Democratic and Republican national parties have set up programs to seek contributions of $1 million or more for the 2016 election. The Democratic and Republican national parties have now joined the 2016 presidential candidates as supplicants chasing the richest individuals in the United […]

Fred Wertheimer for Huffington Post: “The Koch Brothers’ Magic Trick”

In August, 2015, Charles and David Koch gathered their fellow billionaires and multimillionaires at a semi-annual meeting of the Koch network “to save” the country, in the words of Charles Koch. It was not exactly the same kind of meeting that occurred in July 1776 when the Founding Fathers gathered in Philadelphia to create a […]

Reform Groups Urge President Obama to Reject Campaign Finance Riders in Appropriation Bills

Reform groups today wrote to President Obama strongly urging him to reject all riders in appropriations bills, including four damaging campaign finance riders, and to insist that clean FY 2016 appropriations legislation is sent to him for his signature. The reform groups include: Campaign Legal Center, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Common Cause, Democracy 21, Demos, […]

Reform Groups Call on IRS to End Misuse of Nonprofits to Launder Secret Contributions into Federal Elections

  In a letter sent today to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, reform groups called on the IRS to end the misuse use of nonprofit groups to launder secret contributions into federal elections. The reform groups included the Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause, Demand Progress, Democracy 21, League of Women Voters, People For the American Way, […]