As President Trump prepares to deliver his first State of the Union later this week, Common Cause and Democracy 21 are releasing a new report, “The Art of the Lie,” which pulls together a dizzying series of events and provides an overview of this unprecedented presidency. The report bundles together the crises, conflicts of interest, and new lows of the last year in 20 distinct issue areas to capture Trump’s failed first year record on matters of government integrity and accountability.

Today, Common Cause will release a new report - “Putin, Trump and Democracy’s Slippery Slope Toward Oligarchy”- that examines Russia’s attacks on the 2016 presidential election, the continuing threats to our democracy and solutions to address these threats. It also examines how the campaign and Administration of Donald Trump have harnessed our system’s weaknesses to their political and personal benefit.

Media monopolization imperils democracy - fewer press outlets mean less of the accountability journalism that American voters depend on to cast informed ballots. Meanwhile corrupt politicians can rest easy that the depleted local press corps will be less likely to report on graft. Ajit Pai’s anti-public interest wrecking ball is poised to strike again.

Today, Common Cause urged Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) to force House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes’ (R-CA) to fully recuse from the committee’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election after Nunes threatened to “take the investigation over.”

The Public Interest Law Center filed a lawsuit in state court today on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania and individual voters challenging the state’s congressional districts as an illegal partisan gerrymander. League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is one of a series of suits nationwide challenging extreme partisan gerrymanders that have left millions of Americans with no opportunity to elect the candidates of their choice. Plaintiffs in the Pennsylvania suit argue that the...

Reports that Capitol Police officers may have been directed to obstruct reporter access in Capitol are deeply disturbing. American democracy depends on an adversarial press, but recently press freedom has been under attack as rarely before.

Today, local Common Cause activists delivered a petition to Gov. Terry Branstad at the Capitol urging him to veto a new voter suppression bill passed by the legislature. House File 516 requires voters to show specific forms of government-issued identification at the polls and will roll-back early voting opportunities.

Today 230 national, state, and local groups are releasing a letter in opposition to calls to convene a new constitutional convention.

Today the New Mexico Legislature rescinded its call for an Article V constitutional convention that was originally passed in the 1979. The state lawmakers recognized the threat of a “runaway convention” which could result in major changes to the U.S. Constitution and its protections in a process bankrolled by special interests.

As out-of-state special interest groups try to advance dangerous calls for a new constitutional convention, Common Cause Kentucky is urging the legislature to reject these measures.