Press Release

The “For the People Act” offers common sense solutions to problems Americans are demanding that their elected officials solve. These pro-democracy reforms are tested and proven to be effective on the state and local level where citizens, tired of waiting for Washington to act, worked to enact these reforms. Citizen action has moved elected officials in many states and municipalities and citizens have also taken matters into their own hands and passed ballot initiatives. As we outlined in our Democracy on the Ballot report, more than 90% of the pro-democracy reform initiatives passed in each of the last two cycles.

Eric H. Holder, Jr, the 82nd Attorney General of the United States, and Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today signed the End Gerrymandering Pledge, a new initiative of Common Cause to advance fair redistricting reform that is transparent, nondiscriminatory and politically impartial in advance of the 2020 Census.  

Rucho v. Common Cause is the most extreme, overt, and brutal partisan gerrymander this Court or any court has ever seen, says Emmet Bondurant, lead counsel in the case.

Americans deserve to know the full truth about the Russian attacks on the 2016 presidential election. The full report and underlying documentation from Special Counsel Robert Mueller must be released to the American people. Our tax dollars paid for the investigation and we are the victims of Russia’s sweeping efforts to aid the election of Donald Trump to the White House.

Today’s District Court ruling is disappointing as it will embolden to scam PACs to trade on the names of candidates to raise money for their own ends from unknowing citizens. The core requirements of the ban though are in the statute itself and are still enforceable. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) can and should still be enforcing the ban—and opening a rulemaking to establish new disclaimer requirements for non-candidate websites that use a candidate’s name in the URL. The court itself cited such new disclaimer requirements as an appropriate means of protecting donors from being preyed upon by scam PACs.

Yesterday, Common Cause joined by Public Knowledge, United Church of Christ OC, Inc., and Sports Fans Coalition filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) asking the agency to deny the proposed merger of Nexstar Media Group and Tribune Media Company. If approved, Nexstar would control 216 stations across 118 markets reaching 72 percent of U.S. households, far exceeding the Congressionally established ownership cap of 39 percent.