News Clips

In 2017, the Supreme Court heard a case that began in Wisconsin that some thought might lead to the declaration of gerrymandering as unconstitutional. It didn’t. Now there’s fear among redistricting-reform advocates that the new makeup of the Court will do pretty much the opposite and take a case that would declare the independent commissions unconstitutional. said Kathay Feng, the national redistricting director of Common Cause, said that if that happened, it would lead to a revolution. “I’m calling us to arms,” she joked. Others believe that it could have a boomerang effect, forcing Congress to address the issue nationally—the same thought process that had people believing that Congress would update the Voting Rights Act after the Supreme Court struck down a key section of it in 2013.

“We are finally beginning to see New York’s elections begin — just begin — to catch up with the rest of the country,” said Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York, a good-government group.

“When lawmakers draw their own lines, they lose all of their philosophical ideals and they become ugly monsters that are willing to cut out competitors, punish people from the other party and try to draw the most protective district for themselves so they don’t have to face serious competition for the next 10 years,” said Kathay Feng, national redistricting director at the good government group Common Cause, which championed the creation of California’s commission.

According to a court filing earlier this week, former 2016 Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort shared presidential campaign polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian citizen with ties to Russian intelligence. If the data Manafort shared with Kilimnik was used to materially guide spending by Russian nationals to influence the 2016 presidential election, then the Trump campaign seemingly received an “in-kind contribution” from the Russian nationals in the form of “coordinated expenditures” in violation of multiple federal campaign finance laws. A key link in the “coordination” here is the revelation of Manafort’s actions.

Mueller's investigation of those attacks must be allowed to continue, following the evidence wherever it leads. The American people are entitled to answers and accountability. A bipartisan group of senators is reintroducing legislation to protect the Mueller investigation — legislation that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked last year. Americans are closely watching how Congress will respond to the pending threats to the Mueller investigation with Barr's nomination and Rosenstein's departure. With the 2020 presidential election on the horizon, we must put country before party to hold accountable those who undermined the 2016 election and to protect the integrity of our future elections. No less than our democracy is at stake.

“If the president follows through on the threat to declare a state of emergency simply to circumvent the legislative branch and build a wall on the Mexican border,” says Common Cause president Karen Hobert Flynn, “then Congress must act swiftly and decisively to check the abuse utilizing the National Emergencies Act, which was enacted in 1976 as a post-Watergate reform to reassert Congress’s constitutional role in checking and safeguarding against authoritarian abuses of power.”