Today’s badly broken campaign finance system benefits wealthy interests, and leaves hundreds of millions of ordinary Americans on the outside looking in at Washington’s rigged system.
By: Fred Wertheimer Published by: Huffington Post America today has dueling campaign finance systems for federal elections. One system, in existence for more than 40 years, provides contribution limits and disclosure requirements for federal candidates and political parties spending money in federal elections. This system was enacted by Congress and upheld by the Supreme Court […]
Today, Democracy 21 joined the Campaign Legal Center in filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) urging the FEC to investigate apparent violations of campaign finance laws by Senator Ted Cruz and the 2012 Cruz for Senate Campaign relating to loans he obtained from Goldman Sachs and Citibank for use in his 2012 […]
This op-ed is the second in a three part series on the consequences of the Citizens United decision. The first op-ed, entitled “Citizens United and its Disastrous Consequences: The Decision”, can be found here. The Huffington Post Citizens United Consequences Part Two: Super Rich Empowered, Ordinary Americans Undermined, Democracy Subverted By: Fred Wertheimer January 20, 2015 […]
January 21 marks the sixth anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, one of the worst and most damaging decisions in the Court’s history. In the case, the Supreme Court, by a 5 to 4 vote, ruled that it was unconstitutional to ban corporations from making independent expenditures […]
According to Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer: The Supreme Court in the McCutcheon decision struck down the aggregate limit on the total amount an individual donor could give to all party committees. By doing so, the Supreme Court made it possible for candidates and officeholders to solicit and for donors to give very large checks […]
Statement of Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer Democracy 21 thanks and commends President Obama, House Democratic Leader Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Reid, and other Democratic members of Congress who worked on this, for their successful efforts to keep three very damaging campaign finance riders out of the final Omnibus spending bill. We also join […]
Reforms groups sent a letter today enclosed below to President Barack Obama, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid urging them to block any last minute efforts to kill the presidential tax check off system in the Omnibus spending bill. The reform groups include Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause, CREW, […]
According to an article in today’s Washington Post on the omnibus spending legislation currently being negotiated: Campaign finance could be another area of compromise. Conservatives worry that the proposed changes would give greater electoral control to mainstream party leaders. Aides said the campaign finance rule could possibly be adapted to ease those concerns by including […]
In a letter sent today to the Tax Division of the Justice Department, Democracy 21, joined by the Campaign Legal Center, called for an investigation of the Conservative Solutions Project (CSP), an organization claiming tax-exempt status as a social welfare organization under section 501(c)(4) of the tax code. According to the letter, “The investigation should […]
In a letter sent today, reform groups strongly urged senators and representatives to reject damaging campaign finance riders that have been attached to pending House and Senate Appropriations Committee bills and to oppose any new campaign finance riders that would weaken or undermine the campaign finance laws. The groups included Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause, […]
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