Press Release

Today, Common Cause joined a group of nonpartisan and bipartisan political reform organizations in filing an amicus brief at the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in support of Michigan’s nonpartisan redistricting commission in Daunt v. Benson and Michigan Republican Party v. Benson.

Americans deserved the truth, but they got a ham-handed coverup instead. The Republican majority in the United States Senate denied the American people the truth and violated their oaths of office in a fruitless attempt to sweep Donald Trump’s illegal acts under the rug. In a cowardly and disgraceful final act to their show trial, Senate Republicans – with the notable exception of Mitt Romney - buried their heads in the sand and voted to condone President Trump’s blatant abuse of the powers of the presidency. Make no mistake about it, this was nothing more than an attempted partisan coverup for the shameless and illegal conduct of Donald Trump.

Americans deserve secure and fair elections and caucuses as they choose their elected representatives. Last night a new app that was introduced to help report Iowa caucus results failed. The new app – which Nevada had been planning to use for its caucuses later this month - was intended to help the precinct chairs record the results from each round of voting and aggregate the results. But no results were delivered because the app failed in numerous ways.

Americans deserve the truth and they deserve to hear from witnesses in the impeachment trial. The Republican Senate majority has cynically ignored overwhelming public support for witness testimony. Nationwide, support for witnesses has risen as more and more details have come out about President Trump’s shameful and illegal conduct in withholding vital military aid to Ukraine in order to coerce our endangered ally into launching an unfounded investigation to smear Trump’s political rival Joe Biden. Recent polls from Monmouth and Quinnipiac found 75% of Americans want to hear from witnesses – including 49% of Republicans, 75% of independents and 95% of Democrats.

Today, Common Cause strongly urged the United States Senate to obey the will of the people and vote for the motion to allow future votes on witnesses and evidence in President Trump’s impeachment trial. In a letter to every Senator, Common Cause emphasized that the American people expect and deserve a fair impeachment trial – not a show trial to excuse the abuses of office which led to the impeachment of President Trump.

Partisan operatives in Missouri have introduced a several pieces of legislation designed to roll back key elements of the bipartisan Clean Missouri initiative, which passed with 62% support of Missouri voters in 2018. The new plans put forth by Republican politicians in Missouri are a blatant attempt to create a new rigged way to gerrymander. The proposals will disproportionately silence the voices of youth and communities of color and strip communities of their fair share of resources.