Democracy Wire

Former Common Cause president and lifelong advocate for democracy has passed away.

The tax inversion provisions Allergan and Pfizer are about to exploit are well-known and could easily be eliminated. They exist because Pfizer and other large corporations, individually and through groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have used campaign contributions and an army of lobbyists to persuade a long line of Congresses and Presidents to riddle the federal tax code with loopholes.

Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks, visit loved ones, decompress… and inevitably... talk politics around the dinner table.

A new survey by the Pew Research Center shows that the American people have major concerns with how our government operates and whether or not they can trust the government to solve today’s biggest problems.

In 2005, the Connecticut General Assembly, urged on by an intense grassroots advocacy effort, passed the first comprehensive public financing system for state elections in the nation. The kick off election cycle was 2008, and in that year and ever since, at least 74% of all candidates choose to participate in the system of public financing, called the Citizens’ Election Program. So, has public financing really made a difference? The answer is a resounding, YES! So why are state Democrats proposing to kill the program? That is completely unclear, but leadership has proposed cutting $11.7 million from the Citizens’ Election Fund, effectively wiping out Connecticut’s public financing program.

In a story in Politico today, money in politics journalist Ken Vogel revealed the Koch brothers’ secretive surveillance and intelligence team that is gathering information on their opponents through technology and on the ground sources.