News Clips

He told supporters before he left office in January that he wanted to raise $2 billion for a presidential library, according to the Washington Post, which would be the most ever. The most likely vehicle would be a nonprofit charity, the model used by modern presidents, because donations are tax deductible and the entity doesn’t have to pay tax on the money it raises, said Paul Seamus Ryan of the government-accountability group Common Cause. He could legally accept money in unlimited amounts from sources including foreign countries, and disclosure of the donors’ identities isn’t required except by registered lobbyists who give $200 or more.  Yet such a charity requires that expenditures are used for the public good and not for private benefit of individuals, Ryan said, and Trump has faced questions before about his use of charity funds.

“It’s absolutely the case that his legacy lives on here,” said Stephen Spaulding, senior counsel for public policy at Common Cause, a nonpartisan nonprofit backing the For the People Act. “I just remember it being a very iterative process by which they worked very closely with outside groups to craft the most robust bill,” Spaulding, who was involved in the roundtable discussions, said. “Mr. Lewis was very involved in the details, as was his staff.”

“I think it’s somewhat irresponsible of them to come out after a law has passed,” said Aunna Dennis, executive director of Common Cause Georgia, a voting rights group. “There’s still opportunity for some things to change. We are obviously going to court. We filed a case with our coalition partners and other legal teams to really combat this. So we still need that added pressure from corporations in Georgia to take this stand against these suppressive tactics.”

"This is 100% partisan driven," Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of the voter advocacy group Common Cause Texas said in an interview with Salon. "The political party they don't like is winning too many districts, so they just want to change them so that can no longer happen," Gutierrez testified at Thursday's hearing. "They went out of their way to really innovate gerrymandering in Texas, which is hard to do but they figured out a way. But this is one that I feel harms so many different communities," Gutierrez said, predicting that the impact on traditionally Republican areas of the state could doom the bill in committee.

Stephanie Gómez, the associate director of the advocacy group Common Cause Texas, said in a video conference with reporters that the two bills were “weaponizing legislation to codify widespread voter intimidation.” “If you want to know which state is going to be the next Georgia,” she said, “it’s Texas.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if this decision opens the floodgates to more consolidation for media conglomerates. But that doesn’t mean the FCC has to approve every merger that comes knocking on its door,” said Yosef Getachew, Media & Democracy Program Director for Common Cause.