Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is in a standoff with Democrats as he refuses to remove a rider to a short-term funding bill that would prohibit the Securities and Exchange Commission from strengthening political disclosure requirements for corporations. Stopping measures that would shine some light on corporations’ secret political spending is a top priority […]
Blog: CHECKS
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
This Is What Happens When a State Has No Contribution Limits
The RNC platform released this week broadly calls for rolling back federal campaign-finance laws-going so far as to advocate for the right of donors to contribute unlimited amounts of money. “Limits on political speech serve only to protect the powerful and insulate incumbent officeholders. We support repeal of federal restrictions on political parties in McCain-Feingold, […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
The FEC Just Slapped Koch Brothers Groups with a Big Fine
In a sign that, surely, the end times are near, the partisan-deadlocked Federal Election Commission actually agreed to enforce campaign-finance laws-six years after the fact. Three groups funded by Charles and David Koch’s expansive political network agreed to pay $233,000 in fines to the FEC for illegally hiding the identities of donors to their 2010 […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Report: Most Pharma Donations Go to Drug-Affordability Opponents
Alarmed by a new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) pilot program that aims to bring down the cost of drugs to patients, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have lined up against it, citing concerns ranging from rationing of care to reduction in rural patients’ access to affordable providers. But a Public […]
Posted inCivil Rights in America
Court Deals Blow to Advocates Fighting Voter Registration Obstacles
Voting rights advocates trying to rein in the head of the beleaguered federal Election Assistance Commission are getting no favors from the courts. Last week, a D.C. Circuit Court judge declined to issue a preliminary injunction blocking what critics say are voter-registration barriers that violate federal law. Back in January, Brian Newby, the commission’s executive […]
Posted inLaw and Justice
Reformers Sound Alarm: McDonnell Ruling Invites Corruption
Good-government advocates voiced alarm Monday that the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling to overturn former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell’s 11-count corruption conviction will pave the way for the wealthy and powerful to more brazenly wield influence in government. “By saying that politicians can receive gifts in exchange for political favors, the Supreme Court has enshrined bribery […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Report: Dark Money Surges in State and Local Elections
Undisclosed political spending is both more pronounced and more influential at the state and local level than it is in federal elections, concludes a new report by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s School of Law. Also on the rise in state elections is what the report calls “gray money”-money that moves […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Have New York’s Leaders Doomed Major Ethics Reform?
In the wee hours of Saturday, June 18, the New York legislature and Governor Andrew Cuomo passed a reform deal that strengthens the ban on coordination between super PACs and campaigns, and strips pensions from public officials who are convicted of felonies related to their office. But instead of cheering, government reform advocates are livid. […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Foreign Contributions Risk Unites Liberals, Conservatives
Campaign-finance deregulation has elevated the risk that foreign money will make its way into American elections, and this danger is emerging as a rare point of bipartisan agreement between liberals and conservatives. The threat of foreign campaign contributions and how to stop it was the topic of a bipartisan forum at the Federal Election Commission […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Will Obama Heed Advocates’ Call to Act on Dark Money and Voting Rights?
President Obama used his final State of the Union address to call for a “better politics”-declaring, “We have to reduce the influence of money in our politics, so that a handful of families and hidden interests can’t bankroll our elections.” He added, “We’ve got to make it easier to vote, not harder. We need to […]