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News & Observer: Rural NC is shrinking. It will affect political redistricting after the 2020 election
The political maps of the past decade have favored rural voters, said Common Cause North Carolina Executive Director Bob Phillips. Rural voters tend to support Republicans, and the maps were drawn to cement Republicans’ power. Plus, he said, many of North Carolina’s most powerful lawmakers are from rural areas themselves. Phillips, who is an advocate for redistricting reform, said he is still trying to convince Republican leaders like them to pass reforms in the next few months, before the 2020 elections. In part, he said, he pitches it as an insurance policy for Republicans in case Democrats do win in 2020. Without reforms to take politics out of the process, Phillips said, Democrats could draw new maps that benefit urban voters as much as the current maps benefit rural voters. “I sometimes talk to those lawmakers and say, ‘The pendulum swings,’” Phillips said. “‘You all know that. And you do not want to ... be left out, potentially, if the pendulum were to swing back.’”
Found in: Common Cause
Salon: House passes "historic" bill to restore and expand voting rights
"To Majority Leader McConnell, we ask: why are you afraid of all Americans having their full right to vote?" Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections at Common Cause, said in a statement.
Found in: Common Cause
NBC News (VIDEO): How will redistricting impact the 2020 election?
Two more House Republicans have announced their retirement, adding to over a dozen House Republicans that will not be seeking re-election in 2020. Suzanne Almeida from the Common Cause Redistricting Counsel explains what role redistricting may have played in their decision.
Found in: Common Cause
Politico: Cut out of impeachment, emoluments crusaders plot plan B
Common Cause hand-delivered a list of nine possible articles — including one outlining how Trump illicitly profited off the presidency — to all House members late last month. “Not including expanded articles … gives a green light for future presidents that these abuses can go unpunished,” said Aaron Scherb, director of legislative affairs at Common Cause, which works closely with staff of House committees.
Found in: Common Cause
Los Angeles Times: L.A. is planning to limit campaign money from developers. But first, more fundraising
City leaders should move ahead with the developer donation limits “whether or not they can 100% enforce it,” Rey López-Calderón, executive director of the watchdog group California Common Cause. “It will be great when they update their systems and get a database” to track developers with pending projects, López-Calderón said. “But what they need to do right now is show the public that they’re serious about changing the culture of Los Angeles City Hall.”
Found in: Common Cause
News & Observer: New congressional maps in North Carolina will stand for 2020, court rules
The anti-gerrymandering group Common Cause North Carolina was a plaintiff in the lawsuit over the legislative lines, not the congressional lines, but the group’s executive director, Bob Phillips, was in court Monday to watch nevertheless. He said he will continue to push for more permanent reforms at the Legislature, so that future districts can be drawn with “much more robust public input” and potentially avoid so many legal challenges. “I think there’s a lot of room for improvement on transparency,” Phillips said. “Obviously reform in our mind means somebody else besides the lawmakers drawing it.”
Found in: Common Cause
Associated Press: Financial disclosure a target of lawmakers’ ethics quest
“The narrowly-tailored questions seem to provide plenty of opportunity to shield relationships, say by routing funds through an intermediary,” said Jay Young, executive director of Common Cause Illinois.
Found in: Common Cause
The Hill (Op-Ed): Congress has no other option than to impeach and remove the president from office
The American people deserve a president who will respect the solemn oath they take to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and our democracy. As the U.S. House finishes up its public impeachment hearings, it’s clear that President Trump has violated that oath and shown a pattern of deception, obstruction, corruption, and abuse of power. Because of that, the House has no other option than to impeach, and the Senate to convict and remove the president from office.
Found in: Common Cause
Patterns of Deception: Obstruction, Corruption & Abuse of Power
Impeachment is an extraordinary measure that We the People put in place to remove a president for his dangerous actions. But we’re in an unprecedented and sobering moment — one that goes much further than a single Trump scandal.
Found in: Common Cause
New York Times: He Invited Donald Trump Jr. to Campus. Now He’s Facing Impeachment.
Beth Rotman, the director of money in politics and ethics for the good-government group Common Cause, said the payment appeared to cross the line, and warranted a thorough investigation. “We’re talking about significant dollars, and public dollars, for a representative of a national political campaign to talk to adults on campus,” Ms. Rotman said, adding that she was glad young people were paying as close attention to their local representatives as federal watchdogs are for the president.