Campaign Finance

“Each election, spending rises exponentially,” said Kate Titus, executive director of Common Cause Oregon, another good government group that supports contribution limits. “It will continue to do so until we demand otherwise. We know what tools help rein in the corrupting influence of money in politics — a combination of limits, transparency, and matching funds to make small dollar campaigns viable. It’s time that Oregon lawmakers act to put this in place.”

Aaron Scherb, senior director of legislative affairs at Common Cause, said it appears Trump will skate, thanks to historically lax federal enforcement on the question. “Coordination is still certainly illegal here, although the FEC has shown next to no appetite for enforcing coordination rules and laws. There’s not a smoking gun here per se, but it seems like exploitation of a loophole, and three GOP commissioners have shown zero willingness to investigate and enforce existing coordination laws,” Scherb said. “Until they do, special interests and dark money groups will continue to exploit loopholes at the expense of everyday voters.”

"Outside groups are making up the difference," said Aaron Scherb, a lobbyist on campaign finance and election issues for Common Cause, a watchdog group that advocates for increasing transparency in campaign finance.

Complaints against Li “Cindy” Yang, who raised campaign cash and parlayed persistence to gain access to Republican circles in Florida and get pictures taken with the then-president, were filed by Common Cause, a Washington-based watchdog group, and the Campaign Legal Center. The dismissal of those complaints came three years after the Miami Herald first revealed Yang’s activities in a series of articles titled Trump Tourism.

Common Cause is urging every member of the U.S. Senate to vote to begin debate on the DISCLOSE Act later this week when the Senate considers the legislation to bring transparency to the secret money groups spending hundreds of millions of dollars to influence our elections. The letter emphasizes that Americans overwhelmingly support legislation to eliminate secret money and cites polling showing that 74% of voters–including strong majorities of Republicans, Independents, and Democrats–favor legislative provisions to provide new disclosure requirements like the DISCLOSE Act.

Common Cause today released initial results of its Our Democracy 2022 candidate questionnaire in the leadup to the first election since January 6th. With two months to go before Election Day, more than 100 candidates for Congress, including in certain swing House and Senate races, responded on how they promise to defend and strengthen our democracy.