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Eliza Newlin Carney

Eliza Newlin Carney is a weekly columnist at The American Prospect. Her email is ecarney@prospect.org.

 

Recent Articles

The Women’s Hour

Eliza Newlin CarneyApr 13, 2017
(Photo: Susan Platt campaign)
Susan Platt campaign Political consultant Susan Platt, who is running for the state's open lieutenant governor seat, at the Women's March on Washington. rules-logo-109_2.jpg F or New York lawyer Alessandra Biaggi, the moment of truth came on election night, as she gathered with fellow Hillary Clinton campaign workers in a room beneath the stage of Manhattan’s Javits Center, and watched her young, female interns cry their eyes out. “I just remember looking at them,” recalls Biaggi, 30, and thinking: “I am going to run for office.” For New Jersey businesswoman Christine Chen, the tipping point came after Election Day, when she was struggling to explain to her two young children that a man she considered a bully would now be president. “It wasn’t congruent with everything I was teaching, and I really asked myself if there was more that I could do,” recalls Chen, 36. Soon afterward, she says, “I sent an email to my entire family and said: I’m going to run for office.” Virginia consultant...

Pro-Gorsuch Ads Backfired

Conservatives spent millions on ads to pressure Democrats to back Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court, one key reason many are now voting against him

Eliza Newlin CarneyApr 06, 2017
AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File
AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File Supreme Court Justice nominee Neil Gorsuch during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. rules-logo-109_2.jpg U ndisclosed political money has been a key factor in the fight over Judge Neil Gorsuch’s Supreme Court confirmation, both as a tool for big-spending conservative groups, and as a flash point for Democratic opposition. Close to two dozen of the Senate Democrats who have vowed to block Gorsuch have denounced both the more than $10 million spent—with no disclosure—to promote him, and Gorsuch’s own failure to endorse political transparency. On campaign-finance issues, Gorsuch appears to fall to the right of the late Antonin Scalia, who favored deregulation but who staunchly defended political disclosure . Gorsuch also has regarded contribution limits to candidates’ campaigns, one of the few remaining pillars of the campaign-finance regime, in a more critical light than the Supreme Court has. “This issue has galvanized the...

A White House Without Rules

Eliza Newlin CarneyMar 16, 2017
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
AP Photo/Evan Vucci From left, White House director of Strategic Initiatives Christopher Liddell, Dell CEO Michael Dell, and General Dynamics CEO Phebe Novakovic listen as President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with manufacturing executives at the White House in Washington. rules-logo-109_2.jpg S o many ethics complaints have now been lodged against the Trump administration that it’s getting hard to keep track. The billionaires running cabinet agencies, the White House advisers accused of self-dealing, and the president’s own failure to divest from his increasingly lucrative business holdings have all drawn so much notice that Americans may be tempted to tune out. But the story of Trump administration ethics conflicts is not going away, and every new revelation sheds disturbing light on a White House culture that celebrates self-enrichment, and that treats the president’s inner circle as literally exempt from the rules that lay out a precise code of conduct for executive...

Will the Koch Brothers Save Obamacare?

Eliza Newlin CarneyMar 09, 2017
AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File
AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File Americans for Prosperity Foundation Chairman David Koch speaks in Orlando, Florida. rules-logo-109_2.jpg P rogressives campaigning to defend Barack Obama’s signature health-care law may find their biggest assist comes from the unlikeliest of allies: the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch and their conservative network. The Koch-funded group Americans for Prosperity, having spent tens of millions to oppose the Affordable Care Act, is now gearing up to throw more big money behind a campaign to block congressional Republicans’ health-care replacement bill. Deep-pocketed conservative groups such as the Club for Growth, FreedomWorks, and Heritage Action for America have also panned the House GOP health-care plan, and are mounting an aggressive counter-attack. Of course, right-leaning and progressive activists are assailing the House GOP bill unveiled this week for completely opposite reasons. Conservatives say the Republican bill, officially...

The FEC’s Open Hostilities, Dysfunction, and Intimidation Foreshadowed the Trump Era

Eliza Newlin CarneyMar 02, 2017
Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via AP Images
bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via AP Images Federal Election Commissioner Ann Ravel. rules-logo-109_2.jpg D emocrat Ann Ravel’s departure from the Federal Election Commission could set the stage for a shakeup that propels the agency away from mere dysfunction and into the realm of aggressive campaign-finance deregulation. The scathing “ Dysfunction and Deadlock ” report that Ravel released on leaving the commission makes it look as though the six-member FEC couldn’t possibly get any less effective than it is today. The percentage of substantive votes that ended in stalemate spiked from 2.9 percent in 2006 to 30 percent in 2016. Fines dropped from $5.5 million to $595,425 during that same window. Blatant campaign-finance violations on issues ranging from employee political coercion to the use of shell corporations and nonprofits to hide campaign spending went uninvestigated and unpunished. But the FEC’s failure to enforce the rules, while a longtime sore point for watchdogs, could start to...

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