Disclosure & Transparency

“Not every behested payment is nefarious, but every behested payment deserves scrutiny,” said Jonathan Mehta Stein, executive director at the good government group California Common Cause. “And the explosion of behested payments recently certainly creates a perception among the public that corporations and players in state politics are using this as an avenue to get around our pay-to-play rules.”

2022 is likely to be a year full of social media companies making content moderation decisions that politicians don’t like. Elections create an incentive for overheated or misleading claims, and all 435 seats in the House are up for grabs, as well as 34 of the 100 Senate seats. “Campaigns are using election disinformation in really novel ways, and we’re going to see more of that in 2022,” says Jesse Littlewood, vice president for campaigns at the good government group Common Cause. Republicans consistently accuse Twitter and Facebook of abusing their power, but Littlewood and other critics say social media companies allow too much content designed to undermine voters’ faith in the integrity of the electoral system to spread on their platforms.

"You're asking your constituents to show up and testify, to take time out of their busy days, and they don't even know what they're testifying about," said Viki Harrison, director of state operations for Common Cause, a government accountability organization. "All that does is make the public think that politicians are not real people and are not looking out for our best interests."

Paul S. Ryan, vice president of government watchdog Common Cause, called the revelations “a big deal.” “The importance of disclosure in this matter can’t be overstated,” Ryan told The Daily Beast. “It’s no secret that Kanye West’s candidacy would have a spoiler effect, siphoning votes from Democrat Joe Biden. Voters had a right to know that a high-powered Republican lawyer was providing legal services to Kanye—and federal law requires disclosure of such legal work.”

“I think there is a tremendous amount of pressure on them to deliver on voting rights," said Stephen Spaulding, senior counsel for public policy and government affairs at Common Cause.

Common Cause is urging every member of the U.S. House of Representatives to vote “yes” in support of the Protecting Our Democracy Act (H.R. 5314), in order to provide greater checks and balances to the vast powers of the presidency in the wake of the unprecedented abuses of those powers by the administration of Donald Trump. The letter, sent yesterday to every Member of the House, emphasizes that the proposed legislation will create new mechanisms for transparency and accountability that will apply to all future presidents, regardless of their political party. The letter also notes that Common Cause plans to key-vote this legislation in our Democracy Scorecard, which we send to our 1.5 million members.