Recent email disclosures involving the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton Foundation create appearance problems, but as yet produce no evidence of corruption.
Campaign Spending
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Plotting the End of Super PACs
Having met with skepticism earlier this month when they lodged an FEC complaint challenging super PACs, reform advocates are now rallying behind a St. Petersburg ordinance that would ban super PACs locally.
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Q&A: Liberal and Conservative Campaign-Finance Reformers Unite in Cleveland
As the Republican National Convention in Cleveland unfolded, a liberal former investment manager and a former Republican campaign director stood together to call for campaign-finance reforms.
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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, […]
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Convention Cash More Controversial Than Ever
For this year’s conventions, the political parties are collecting bigger checks under more relaxed rules, even as voter anger mounts over special-interest corporate money.
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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 […]
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How Democrats Can Unify in California
Both Sanderistas and Clintonistas should campaign this fall against the corporations’ growing Sacramento clout.
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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 […]
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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
Clinton, Senate Democrats Plan Broad Democracy Reforms
Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton’s campaign is reportedly planning to roll out a sweeping platform of democracy reforms that builds on the campaign-finance overhaul she unveiled in September, say progressive advocates. Democracy advocates have been urging Clinton to more forcefully articulate her reform agenda on the campaign trail. Throughout the primary, Clinton has faced consistent […]