Limits on the Influence of Money In Politics

As 2018 congressional races heat up, Common Cause is once again tracking the positions of every Member of Congress on issues vital to the health of our democracy. Members of the House and Senate have received letters asking them to co-sponsor and support more than a dozen democracy reform bills and informing them that their co-sponsorship record will be published to our 1.1 million members during the lead-up to Election Day in Common Cause’s “Democracy Scorecard.”

Though he's now a lame duck, House Speaker Paul Ryan put down the mini-rebellion among his fellow Republicans with a simple message: the constituents who really matter to the party’s elected leaders – the big dollar donors – are still with him and still writing checks.

Vermonters love hunting and about half own guns, but the Green Mountain State is standing up to the NRA to impose sensible gun restrictions

Millions of dollars from secret donors financed the "social welfare" groups that obtained personal information about millions of Americans from Facebook and used it to help Donald Trump win the presidency

On March 5, 2018, Common Cause filed complaints with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging reason to believe that President Trump and his campaign violated numerous federal campaign finance laws by setting up super PAC America First Action (AFA) and dark money group America First Policies (AFP) to raise and spend unlimited "soft money" to influence federal elections, including President Trump's 2020 reelection efforts. The March 2018 complaint also alleges Vice President Pence and his leadership PAC, the Republican National Committee (RNC), and a number of aides violated numerous campaign finance laws by coordinating “soft money” fundraising and spending with AFA and AFP. On March 15, 2019, Common Cause filed supplements with the DOJ and FEC to its 2018 complaints, providing further evidence of campaign finance law violations in the form of the Trump campaign's public endorsement of AFA as the campaign's "approved" outside group and solicitation of funds for the group.