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.
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 […]
According to articles in the BNA Money & Politics Report and Bloomberg News, a report released on April 30, 2015 by the Treasury Department’s Inspector General suggests that the IRS is headed towards denying Crossroads GPS status as a 501(c)(4) tax-exempt “social welfare” organization. Crossroads GPS has used its claim of eligibility for 501(c)(4) tax-status […]
Reuters Why Jeb Bush’s super PAC plan is potentially illegal Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush is preparing to push the role of the individual-candidate super PAC to new, brazen heights. The Bush campaign is reportedly planning to reverse the role of Bush’s campaign committee and the “independent” super PAC supporting him – so that the super PAC […]
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