Legislative Ethics

The Civil Beat Editorial Board spoke on Tuesday with the program director of Common Cause Hawaii. Camron Hurt said the organization under his leadership will focus on elections, voting access, government transparency and campaign finance reform. Hurt began by explaining what Common Cause does.

"I'm shocked every time I see how much money is being spent," said Joanne Antoine, executive director of Common Cause Maryland. The nonprofit group does its own lobbying for "good government" bills, like those that expand ethics laws or transparency around money in politics. Antoine said the disclosures can help the public "connect the dots" on how both major institutions and grassroots advocates affect legislation. "Unfortunately, this is where they have the advantage over organizations like ours," Antoine said. "They do have a lot more influence and a lot more access than we do, and it's because of the amount of money they have."

“How do they get anything done? Are the important decisions going to be deadlocked? The consequences of that, as we are learning, could be devastating,” said Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina. Early voting polling sites and schedules must be approved by the unanimous support of a county election board under current law, Phillips said. If a member of the county board objects, the state board must decide. If it cannot, he said, current law says the only early voting site would be the county board of elections office. Such a decision could have a devastating impact on turnout in large counties that might normally have more than a dozen early voting locations, he said, and leave voters in more rural, less populous counties forced to travel.

Some groups argue L.A. shouldn’t pick a number, but rather set the ideal level of representation. California Common Cause, a good-government advocacy organization, has urged the city to create 150,000-resident districts — the equivalent of 27 districts based on current population — and allow the number of districts to rise or fall every 10 years with population changes. A hybrid system has some potential pitfalls, warned Kathay Feng with Common Cause.  “I do think you can have a mixed system if the at-large seats are coupled with methods of casting ballots that give minority communities an ability to vote with greater voter representation,” such as ranked-choice voting, Feng added.

The report, released by Common Cause Nebraska, showed that the businesses and organizations that hire lobbyists spent more than $21.4 million on their lobbying efforts during 2022. That’s up 5.5% from the year before and 10.6% from 2019, before the pandemic hit. “It’s pretty dramatic, I think,” said Jack Gould, the Common Cause issues chair. “This report shows the ever-growing influence of lobbying and why Nebraskans must demand better.” Gould said the figures are a concern because the groups that can afford to hire lobbyists gain more clout in the legislative process than the average Nebraskan. Among other things, lobbyists are able to build relationships with senators and become key sources of information for them.

Claire Snyder-Hall, executive director of Common Cause Delaware, criticized the House vote, saying corporations have no place in elections. “In a state with more registered businesses than residents, this bill gives wealthy outsiders the power to override the actual people of Seaford,” she said in a news release.