Media

A new tool is available to help overseas voters get and cast their absentee ballots

A coalition led by Common Cause Maryland has secured passage of Fair Elections legislation that will let candidates in Montgomery County run on a base of small donations from individuals, with public matching funds.

The Sept. 26 Metro article “Montgomery vote nears on public funding of campaigns” focused on the reelection rates of political incumbents. The real value of public financing becomes apparent after Election Day. Candidates who rely on small donations supplemented by matching funds can make serving the public interest, not the private interests of their major donors, their priority.

It’s a closed-door group the sells private access to legislators for tens of thousands of dollars, and that’s not good no matter whether the policies are rightist or leftist.

Suggestions by Comcast that Common Cause sought favorable treatment and offered to drop its opposition to the company's merger with Time Warner Cable are unfounded.

Internet powerhouse Yelp, which specializes in helping consumers find products and services in their communities, confirmed Wednesday that it has found its way out of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).