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.
In a letter sent today to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Democracy 21, joined by the Campaign Legal Center, cited the recent formal appointment of Mike Murphy to head the Rise to Rise Super PAC as further evidence of the need for a Justice Department investigation into the Bush Super PAC scheme. The two groups previously […]
Enclosed for your information is a letter sent by Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer to Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), ranking Democratic member on the Senate Finance Committee. Today in the markup for the Senate Finance Committee that begins at 11 a.m., Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Pat Roberts (R-KS) are expected to offer an amendment […]
Today, 47 members of the House of Representatives signed and sent a letter to President Obama urging the President to block campaign finance riders that have been placed in the House Financial Services Appropriations bill. The letter organized by Representative Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) states that the bill would prevent the Executive Branch from issuing […]
Statement by Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer In a victory for good government, the en banc D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals today unanimously –and correctly– rejected a challenge to the constitutionality of the federal ban on campaign contributions by federal contractors. The ban applies to corporations, other entities and individuals who have federal contracts. The […]
In a letter sent today to the Justice Department, Democracy 21, joined by the Campaign Legal Center, provided the Department with precedent to support the request the groups made in a May 27th letter calling on the Department to investigate potential campaign finance violations involving Jeb Bush’s Super PAC scheme. The groups are also monitoring other presidential campaigns […]
In a letter sent today to Senators, reform groups strongly urged members of the Senate to support the Lobbying and Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2015, sponsored by Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO), which would limit the ability of lobbyists to use bundled contributions to buy influence with members of Congress. The groups included the Campaign […]
Democracy 21, joined by the Campaign Legal Center, today called on the Justice Department to investigate whether former Governor Jeb Bush and his associated Super PAC, the Right to Rise Super PAC, are engaged in knowing and willful violations of the campaign finance laws. The groups also requested Attorney General Loretta Lynch to exercise her […]
Today, Democracy 21 and Public Citizen joined the Campaign Legal Center in filing an amici brief in Independence Institute v. Federal Election Commission (FEC),urging theU.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to dismiss a challenge to the federal “electioneering communications” disclosure provisions upheld by the Supreme Court in its 2010 decision in Citizens United v. […]
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joined the Super PAC circus last week when she met with top donors to Priorities USA to help raise huge contributions for the individual-candidate Super PAC supporting her presidential campaign. In doing so, she joined Jeb Bush and the other presidential candidates who are raising unlimited contributions for the […]
In a letter sent to Senators, nine reform groups strongly urged Senators to support and cosponsor the EMPOWER Act (S. 1176), introduced by Senator Tom Udall (D-NM). The EMPOWER Act would establish a small donor, public matching funds system for presidential candidates. A similar letter was sent to House members urging them to support and […]
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