California Common Cause unequivocally condemns the recently leaked anti-Black, anti-Indigenous, racist, and homophobic comments made behind closed doors by Los Angeles City leaders Nury Martinez, Gil Cedillo, Kevin de León, and LA Labor Federation President Ron Herrera.

“Californians deserve to know the big monied special interests behind legislation that impacts our everyday lives,” said Jonathan Mehta Stein, Executive Director of California Common Cause.

“Our democracy belongs to the people, not the highest bidder,” said Jonathan Mehta Stein, Executive Director of California Common Cause.

“Californians need to know that their politicians are working for them – not special interests,” said Jonathan Mehta Stein, California Common Cause’s Executive Director.

Today, a landmark democracy initiative officially qualified for the November ballot, as the present Oakland City Councilmembers unanimously voted to place the Oakland Fair Elections Act initiative on this year’s local ballot, centering voters and communities in local elections.

Today, California Common Cause announced its endorsement of San Francisco Measure E on the June 2022 ballot.

California Common Cause announced it is the main supporter of bipartisan legislation introduced this week, authored by State Senator Steve Glazer (D-Orinda) and co-authored by Senate Republican Leader Scott Wilk (R-Santa Clarita), that would prohibit political contributions over $250 from parties seeking contracts with local governments to the elected local officials who make contracting decisions.

On April 7, 2022, California Common Cause will celebrate the organization’s 50th anniversary and honor “Democracy Heroes” who have played vital roles in the fight to strengthen democracy in California. The event will also celebrate the former staff and board members who helped make possible the organization’s accomplishments over the past five decades while laying the groundwork for our next 50 years. 

Today, California Common Cause lauded San Francisco’s ban on government officials soliciting behested payments from “interested parties” in the wake of a string of controversies involving those payments. The first-of-its-kind ban in California, which went into effect last week, was adopted in response to a massive corruption scandal that was exposed in 2020 involving multiple city departments and high-ranking city officials. Behested payments appear to have played a significant role in the scandal. California Common Cause touted San...