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 Their Own Words: The Candidates Empowered by the Small Donor Revolution In anticipation of tomorrow’s vote to proceed on S. 1, the For the People Act, Democracy 21, in partnership with People for the American Way (PFAW) and the Declaration for American Democracy Coalition (DFAD), will be releasing a series of videos of women […]
Enclosed for your information is a piece by Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer entitled, “The ‘Swiftest and Surest Way’ to Purge Corruption,” which was published here on Medium on April 16, 2021, and released in Wertheimer’s Political Report on April 15, 2021. Read the full piece here or below. The “Swiftest and Surest Way” to […]
Enclosed for your information is an article titled “Companies Pull Back Political Giving Following Capitol Violence,” published here by The New York Times on January 11, 2021, and an article titled “Corporate revolt shakes political fundraising world,” published here by CNN on January 11, 2021. According to the New York Times article: The moves are […]
“This is a rotten system, but as long as it exists, both parties are going to use it,” said Fred Wertheimer, who runs the watchdog group Democracy 21 and is part of a coalition of more than 170 groups, urging the incoming president to tackle issues ranging from voting rights to greater transparency in campaign […]
Fred Wertheimer, who runs the campaign finance overhaul group Democracy 21, noted that the 2020 elections shattered previous spending records with an estimated price tag of some $14 billion, including $2.6 billion in outside spending. He said the public matching funds system was sorely needed. “Without providing candidates with this alternative way to finance their […]
FRED WERTHEIMER’S WEEKLY NOTE | October 29, 2020 Staggering amounts of campaign money are being raised and spent in the 2020 presidential and congressional elections. Total spending in this election cycle is estimated to reach a record-shattering $14 billion, more than twice the amount spent in the 2016 election cycle, according to the Center for […]
Fred Wertheimer, president of the nonprofit Democracy 21 who’s tracked campaign fundraising since the Watergate era, said in a phone interview the fundraising this year is more than “anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes.” Outside groups can focus money on the most competitive races, and the result, he said, “is a campaign finance system dominated […]
Biden Announces A First Priority for a Biden Administration Will Be Comprehensive Reforms, as Reflected in H.R. 1 Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden announced yesterday “A first priority of a Biden Administration will be to lead on a comprehensive set of reforms like those reflected in the For the People Act (H.R. 1) to […]
President Trump, in a Surprise Move, Apparently Embraces Public Financing of Elections – But Only for Himself Statement of Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer In a surprise move, and in the face of Senate Majority Leader McConnell’s longstanding opposition, President Trump now appears to have embraced public financing of elections – but only for his […]
One Year Later, The Battle For H.R. 1 Goes On Statement of Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer This coming Sunday, March 8, marks one year since the House passed H.R. 1, historic democracy reform legislation to repair the nation’s broken political system and corrupt campaign finance system. While Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has blocked […]
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