Limits on the Influence of Money In Politics

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.

The law was backed by the good governance organization California Common Cause, which described it as “a common sense and long overdue pro-democracy reform” that already exists in other states and in certain California cities. Striking down the law would go against the “will of the people,” said Jonathan Mehta Stein, executive director of California Common Cause. “This law protects Californians from the pay-to-play corruption and the appearance of corruption that plagues our cities and counties, and helps to restore faith in our leaders and our government,” he said.

Common Cause is pleased to announce that two Common Cause veterans have stepped into the role of vice president at the government watchdog. Longtime Common Cause leader Kathay Feng will step into the role of Vice President for Programs and Stephen Spaulding is returning to Common Cause from his role as Policy Director of the U.S. Senate Rules Committee and will serve as Vice President for Policy & External Affairs. Together the two will help lead Common Cause’s national efforts to reduce barriers to a more representative democracy. They will also support efforts for the organization’s 30 state operations working to create a 21st Century democracy that works for everyone.

Viki Harrison, director of constitutional convention and protecting dissent programs at Common Cause, said the FEC’s request should be a “wake-up call” for Congress. “This is an ever-changing field, and the bad actors are always going to try to find a way around the law, but these are all really good policies, and Congress should have implemented them,” Harrison told The Daily Beast, adding that, after multiple requests have gone unanswered, it “sounds like they’re begging” for help. Harrison said “there’s a lot of support from the public on the recurring donations issue, where they’re absolutely targeting elderly donors and using algorithms to do that.”

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.