News Clips

Anthony Gutierrez, Texas executive director of Common Cause, said the lawsuit shows the need for Congress to preempt such “racially and partisan gerrymandered maps” by restoring the Justice Department’s authority to put Texas under a microscope on election plans. “While we are grateful for the involvement of the federal government, what we need to stop the five-decade cycle of having to take legal action every 10 years is for Congress to pass the Freedom to Vote Act,” he said.

The For the People Act “represents the boldest democracy reform since Watergate, and any funds currently available for the old system should be used for the new system of federal citizen-funded elections, which must pass so we can get big money out of politics,” Beth Rotman, the director of money in politics and ethics for Common Cause, said prior to the bill’s stall-out.

The process as it stands empowers central committee insiders with choices that voters should make — choices that voters make in many other states. “The central committee does hold all the power,” Joanne Antoine, the executive director of Common Cause Maryland, has said. Common Cause Maryland is just one Maryland organization that supports reform.

Bob Phillips, the executive director of Common Cause North Carolina — which successfully sued over gerrymandering in 2019 and forced the maps to be redrawn before the 2020 elections — was in court watching the proceedings since Common Cause was a part of this lawsuit too. He said the group hasn’t decided if they’ll also join other lawsuits but he supports them, since he doesn’t want a repeat of last decade — when the 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018 elections were all held using maps that were later found to be unconstitutional. “I think that’s dreadful,” Phillips said. “I think when you have, as we saw last decade, laws and policies passed that aren’t really reflective of who we are in North Carolina, I think it contributes to the lack of trust and confidence that people have in our elections.”

Paul S. Ryan, vice president of litigation at government watchdog Common Cause, pointed out that the laws surrounding lobbying for pardons specifically are fuzzy, and before Trump’s final months relatively untested. But he also noted that a number of Trump lobbyists saw fit to disclose that work. “Other lobbyists tied to Trump have reported massive income lobbying the administration for pardons. Any failure by Whitaker to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars received to lobby the Trump administration warrants close scrutiny,” Ryan told The Daily Beast.

Not all of those honored on this list are registered lobbyists. But they are all key players who the nation’s biggest companies, advocacy groups, labor unions and trade associations turn to when they want their voices heard in the nation’s capital. The ranks of policy experts, influencers and advocates run deep in Washington, but these are the people who stand out for delivering results for their clients in the halls of Congress and the administration. ... GRASSROOTS: Karen Hobert Flynn and Aaron Scherb, Common Cause