News Clips

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.”

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.”

“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.

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.

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.

Why is this better? Consider how a presidential primary works in the current system. We’re constantly gaming out our vote, trying to figure out who can win a general election, or who’s got the best shot in Iowa, as opposed to voting for whom we want because we like what they stand for. How many more times do we have to read thinkpieces about whether a woman or a person of color is electable? With ranked-choice voting, you can vote with your heart and your head — without worrying about sabotaging either.