Common Cause Blog

Make Fair Elections a Top Priority

This week, Common Cause and our partners in the Fair Elections Now Coalition are asking our activists to answer the call put forth by President-elect Barack Obama: share your vision for a better America with the transition team!

We believe it's time to shake up how public policy is made. Out with the special interests, the lobbyists and the big-money PACs. In with the public interest, the needs of average citizens and leaders who take the job of governing for the people seriously. And the first step should be the Fair Elections Now Act.

Please take a moment to tell the Obama team that we need Fair Elections public financing -- because if we want to get serious about real change on the economy, health care, climate change, and more, we have to get serious about ending the influence of powerful special interests. If we want the power of small donors to be the rule for campaigns, not the exception, we need a Fair Elections system to make that happen.

We'd like to hear your thoughts as well -- so please make a copy of your message to President-elect Obama and post it in the comments section here to share with your fellow activists. Thanks.

Connecticut's public financing program already making big waves

Small donors and public funding are powering 75% of the candidates running for state legislature in Connecticut this year. It's the first year of the state's new Citizens' Elections Program, and that's a fantastic start. The New York Times took note of this exciting progress today:

The big story about public financing of campaigns nationally has been Barack Obama's decision to opt out of the national system. But what's unfolding in Connecticut may end up being far more influential.

What's unfolding? Three-quarters of the candidates are not relying on wealthy donors and special interest money to run for office. They're raising small contributions, and those contributions are amplified by public funds to give them enough to run a competitive race -- which means elected officials who aren't accountable to wealthy campaign donors but to regular voters and small donors.

Connecticut's initial success is remarkable; the Times acknowledges, "Connecticut's initial experience has exceeded the expectations of even its most enthusiastic supporters." Yet the media have been largely missing or distorting this demand for reform around the country.

Himes, Shays agree on support for public financing

In a closely contested race in Connecticut, incumbent Rep. Chris Shays (R) and challenger Jim Himes (D) agreed yesterday that changing the way we pay for our elections is critical:

During that rare light moment, they agreed that public financing needs to be adopted for congressional campaigns to prevent the proliferation of lobbyists, political action committees and special interests who this year are making Connecticut's tight 4th District race one of the most-expensive in the country.

Perhaps it has something to do with the dramatic initial success of the Connecticut Citizens Elections public financing program, which began this year. In addition, last week, we sent a letter to every congressional candidate and asked them to sign the Voters First Pledge.

As the nation faces its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, now is the time for bold reforms to both the financial and political systems. Wall Street and powerful financial interests should not be funding campaigns for Congress if we want a political system that truly works for the American people.

The time is long overdue for members of Congress to do what the majority of Americans now know they should do: Make genuine reform of campaign finance a top legislative priority in 2009.

Himes and Shays need to make it official that they're on board -- you can see the signers here -- but it's great that this important reform issue entered their debate in its final weeks.

Connecting... the... dots.

Our friends at the Brennan Center put it succinctly in a piece on The Hill's blog today:

Wall Street routinely doles out large campaign contributions to members of Congress. In the current election cycle, the financial services sector (which includes insurance and real sector), contributed more money to candidates for Congress, the presidency and political parties than did any other sector, totaling $339.6 million from 2007 through today. Both chambers' banking committees also benefit handsomely. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, PACs and employees of the securities and investment industry are the second largest source of cash for members of the Senate Banking committee. During the 2008 election cycle, these contributors raised $11.7 million for the 21 members of that Committee. Banking Committee Chairman Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn) received about $4.3 million since 2003, or half of all contributions to his campaign coffers.

Does campaign cash influence legislation and regulation? When Congress last debated regulation (or rather, de-regulation) of the financial industry in 1999, a study by the Center for Responsive Politics showed that members of Congress who supported the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act received twice as much money from commercial banks, investment banks, and insurance companies as those who opposed the measure. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act was the product of many years of lobbying by the financial industry and allowed for the loosening of bank regulations that had been in place since the Great Depression.

Gutting regulations that had been in place since the Great Depression, leading to a financial crisis that has us moving closer to a repeat of the Great Depression, all because of a pesky little privately-funded campaign system in which Wall Street used its financial might to keep Congress quiet.

When public attention shifts beyond the bailout to the longer term concern of our economy -- and who makes the decisions and regulations going forward -- we need to make sure we fix our political system so it's not a money game that continues to reward the wealthiest interests at the expense of the rest of us. Here's how:

Just last week, the Fair Elections Now Act, which would establish a system of voluntary public financing for Congressional elections, was introduced with bi-partisan support in the House. Last year, Senators Durbin (D-Ill.) and Specter (R-Pa.) introduced the Senate version of the Fair Elections Now Act, which would create a voluntary public financing system for Senate candidates. With the introduction of its House counterpart this week by Representatives Larson (D-Conn.) and Jones (R-N.C.) (both from Clean Elections states), lawmakers are presented with a bipartisan, bicameral effort to undertake serious and lasting structural reform. Public financing would eliminate the perils of special interest cash by establishing strict spending limits, enabling small donors and greatly increasing the power of ordinary voters to hold Congress accountable.

A corrupt system soldiers on

The LA Times covers the story behind the bailout story today: how the major Wall Street financial institutions spent over $1 billion (that's billion with a 'b') on Washington lobbying and campaign contributions in just the last six years, which not only pushed Congress to treat them with kid gloves--i.e. lax regulation, friendly policies--but is also allowing them to continue pushing for their own best interests in the massive bailout package.

The subheadline says it all: Firms have given lavishly to both parties in Congress. That could help them get the language they want in the bill - as well as block provisions such as homeowner assistance.

That's our political system, rife with corrupting big money, soldiering on to favor the wealthy and powerful industries even in the most dire circumstances. There's no better example of why public financing of campaigns would go a long way towards putting the power back into the hands of the people and allow lawmakers to serve the public interest, not the financial services industry's interest.

Could this happen again? Well, we had the S&L crisis twenty years ago, but apparently that lesson wasn't enough to overcome the campaign cash of Wall Street. Either we change the way we finance our elections in this country or... well, you know the old saying,

the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect a different result.

UPDATE (Wednesday): And for a further analysis, see our report out today, "Ask Yourself Why... They Didn't See This Coming."

Millennials Mobilize to Address Money In Politics

Thanks to sponsorship by the Sunlight Foundation and Common Cause, Mobilize.org is bringing Millennials together to address the critical issue of Money In Politics. On September 19-21, 2008, our organization will be holding our national summit on Money in Politics, the Democracy 2.0 Entrepreneur Grant Summit. We are looking for Millennials to come and discuss the issue and then propose grassroots solutions that make use of Web 2.0 tools such as texting, Facebook, Twitter, wikis, mash-ups and blogging. 

The Money in Politics Grant Summit presents members of the Millennial Generation with the opportunity to identify a need for change at the local, state, or national level for clean elections practices and develop an innovative idea. Participation is FREE.

While the summit focuses on the ideas and participation of the Millennial entrepreneurs, we are excited to welcome keynote speakers including Nancy Watzman (Sunlight Foundation) and Sam Rasoul (Change Congress Pledge Candidate for U.S. Rep. VA-6).� Other speakers will be announced when they are confirmed.

Abramoff sentencing today

Jack Abramoff is back up for sentencing today. After serving part of a six-year sentence on a Florida casino fraud, he's now going to be sentenced for what he's best known for: bribing lawmakers with gifts, trips, and campaign cash and defrauding Indian tribes.

It's a sad but important reminder that in a private-money-driven political system, we'll continue to see bad actors and bad decisions made in a bad system.

We could go down a different road, which is what our Voters First Pledge campaign is all about -- getting candidates for Congress committed now, while they're running for election or reelection, to sign on in support of comprehensive public financing.

We're asking folks to send a No More Abramoffs message to Congress, to ask friends and family to do the same, and to take the message directly to the candidates by downloading and using this downloadable "Abramoff flyer" to communicate back to our future elected officials to take the Voters First Pledge.

UPDATE: Abramoff was sentenced to four years in prison.