Money in Politics and Political Conventions: Who Knew?

In the shadow of the Republican National Convention's corporate-sponsored convention, amidst dozens of privately-funded and well-lubricated glitzy private parties for delegates across the Twin Cities, Common Cause and the University of Minnesota Law School's Institute for Law and Politics held a conversation on "Money in Politics" on Tuesday, September 2. Common Cause President Bob Edgar was joined by Minnesota law professor and election expert Guy-Uriel Charles to dissect the big issue of how special interest money dominates today's political scene. Money in politics, they both agreed, is out of control. Bob pointed out that, no matter who gets elected this coming November, much of the debate and what gets addressed will be dictated by special interest money. Who gets to sit around the table that decides our big public issues like health care, energy policy, tax and fiscal policy, you name it, is decided in large part by the influence of special interest money. A representative democracy this ain't. And at the federal level, the Presidential system, once a great example of the promise of public financing, is now fully broken.

Free Speech and Youth Activism: Plenty of Exciting Energy at the RNC

What has been in the news over the last day or so has been the extremely tight police presence at the RNC, and the arrests of hundreds of protesters. Less in the news has been the peaceful and respectful protesting by tens of thousands of concerned Americans in sleepy St. Paul, including Monday's very large march from the Minnesota State Capitol to the RNC convention site. The marches have complicated getting around St. Paul, to say the least, and on Monday Common Cause President Bob Edgar and communications director Mary Boyle, on the way to meet with media near the convention, had to cool their heels for over an hour and enjoy the view of Americans from all walks of life peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights- and demanding political reform. Some photos of the colorful sight are posted.

There have also been rallies and concerts at the Minnesota State Capitol, which as you would expect drew thousands of young voters gathering to talk politics on dozens of issues (and eat and drink and dance). The University of Minnesota's Democracy Matters chapter has been there, with a table on how money in politics is so fundamental to the ability to get anything done today in American politics, and the opportunities to organize at college campuses around the country on this issue. Daryn Cambridge, Common Cause's brand new youth outreach director and recently of Democracy Matters, has been in St. Paul and received a firsthand experience of all this energy and idealism. There's no doubt today's youth are demanding reform and change, and want to get special interests out of politics. It will be very exciting to build on that energy in the weeks to come across college campuses. Some other photos of some of this activity at the RNC are posted here.

"Big Tent" Reception: Reform is Nonpartisan

On Tuesday night, Bob Edgar and Common Cause staff attended as guests of George and Sally Pillsbury the Republican "Big Tent" reception. This was a reception attended by hundreds of Republicans who want to make government work better, and want to work with Democrats to create bipartisan reform. Bob was invited because, as Sally Pillsbury put, "I knew John Gardner, and the values and traditions of Common Cause are more needed today than ever." This reception featured many nationally known speakers who frankly described how much of Republican leadership has become too partisan and too out of sync with voters, gravely jeopardizing their electoral chances this fall. These "Big Tent Republicans" are very interested in democratic and political reform and working with Common Cause, very much what John Gardner had in mind.

September 1- Hurricane Gustav may have blown away the Republican National Convention's tightly constructed agenda, limiting opening day to all but the essentials, but Common Cause was still very much in St. Paul to bring our message of reform.

Today, we ran a full page ad on the "Recapture the Flag" campaign in the Minneapolis Star Tribune's special Republican National Convention section. Check it out here. The "Democracy in Distress" ad, with the upside down flag and demand for a return to constitutional principles and the rule of law, certainly was a bold complement to the Target ad with their awfully cute dog reminding everyone to register to vote. There's little doubt the ad made its nonpartisan and timely point to thousands of Republican delegates and curious Minnesotans.

Common Cause Minnesota spent an exciting summer recruiting our board members, establishing our local office, and contacting legislative candidates to learn about their views on issues that matter most to our members. In fact, over the last six months we have built a solid foundation for our state chapter. We were thrilled to have Common Cause President Bob Edgar visit Minnesota in June as we kicked off our foundation-building summer. Please view Bob's message to Common Cause supporters here -

This past week's news includes another cause for celebration: Minnesota is now the 38th state with a Common Cause chapter.

Politicizing NASA

Josh Zaharoff posted on June 2 the results of an investigation by the NASA inspector general's office. The inspector general found that political appointees in the space agency's public affairs office worked to control and distort public accounts of its researchers' findings about climate change for at least two years.

From the fall of 2004 through 2006, the report said, NASA's public affairs office "managed the topic of climate change in a manner that reduced, marginalized, or mischaracterized climate change science made available to the general public." It noted elsewhere that "news releases in the areas of climate change suffered from inaccuracy, factual insufficiency, and scientific dilution."

Josh points out that "the reason we have career staff at government agencies is to handle such issues without political interference -- the exact opposite of what's happening now, as this story shows."

Here's a recap of Common Cause's work over the past two weeks. We're celebrating hard-won victories regarding the FEC and FCC and highlighting other important work throughout the country.

Federal Election Commission (FEC): We Stopped The White House Again!
On May 16 controversial White House nominee Hans von Spakovsky withdrew his name from consideration for a position on the FEC. Common Cause, working with a coalition of voting rights and reform groups, had opposed von Spakovsky because of his work at the Justice Department rolling back voting rights laws.

I love when candidates for office talk about the need for public financing of campaigns while they're in the midst of their campaigns. And few messengers are better than Al Franken. Here's Senate candidate Al Franken on public financing. The "this" is sitting on the phone for hours each day. For pictures of Franken during "call time," you'll have to check out his post--in fact, just read the whole thing. It's worth it.

I'll let his writing do the talking--and a bit of the joking, too--but one other line jumped out:

On that front, I think I speak for the American public when I say, Al, we're with you.

And while I'm at it, Al, thanks for having the sense and courage to speak out for a fundamental reform--public financing--that others are often hesitant to actively support during a campaign. Keep it up.