Common Cause In the News
A Capital Idea for Ailing Icon?
December 1, 2007 - The Boston Globe
The Massachusetts State House, beset with moisture-ridden walls, cracked plaster, and leaky ceilings, needs a massive renovation in the next few years. But at a time when the budget barely covers basics like bridges, schools, and police officers, how can the state afford it? Read more...
Plans for Annex to Governor's Mansion Draws Critics
November 30, 2007 - The New York Times
A low-key Democrat, Gov. Phil Bredesen is often praised for his level head and business sense. He was easily re-elected to a second term last fall, sweeping every county in Tennessee. Read more...
Open Ethics Process Would Be a Good Step
July 9, 2007 - Roll Call
While the bipartisan ethics task force led by Rep. Mike Capuano (D-Mass.) has not yet voted on a proposal, details of a draft have surfaced that include the creation of an independent ethics panel that would be part of the House ethics process. Read more...
Mortgage Cash Flowed, Legislation Stalled
May 11, 2007 - Politico
The mortgage industry has spent nearly $210 million wooing Congress during the last eight years, according to a report by the advocacy group Common Cause. Read more...
Laws for sale; Astroturfing and citizen apathy on the rise
May 8, 2007 - Ars Technica
Astroturf: it's like "grassroots" organizing, but fake, and it's the new promotion vehicle of choice for corporations with a message. Consumers have long since learned that when a Fortune 500 company shows up at a regulatory hearing and insists that some new plan is "better for consumers," it usually turns out to be better for the company. When a "neutral," non-corporate research and advocacy group pitches the same idea, it can sound a whole lot better. That's why plenty of large companies have founded or sponsored such groups, a fact that gets surprisingly little mention in the media. Read more...
Power to the Public Financing
April 25, 2007 - In These Times
In the aftermath of Jack Abramoff, a new clamor for clean money and clean elections can be heard nationwide. Finally, some legislators are offering more than cosmetic solutions. Read more...
Cable TV control at stake in Ohio
April 22, 2007 - Cleveland Plain Dealer
Imagine your monthly TV bill dropping as video competitors fight for your business. You wear out your thumbs flipping through channels that never end, and cutting-edge technologies put you in the middle of the action on the football field. It could be a TV junkie's nirvana. Read more...
Common Cause blitzes FCC with Los Angeles Times/KTLA-TV cross-ownership protests
April 12, 2007 - MediaChannel
Over 2,500 supporters of Common Cause have filed comments asking the Federal Communications Commission to deny the Tribune Company the right to own both the Los Angeles Times and local TV station KTLA. Read more...
House Hesitates on Ethics Changes
April 12, 2007 - Washington Post
Democratic-led efforts to overhaul the House's oft-criticized ethics enforcement system have stumbled over a familiar obstacle: lawmakers afraid of outside scrutiny. Read more...
Campaign $tratosphere
April 8, 2007 - Denver Post
Presidential candidates shattered all fundraising records in the first quarter of this year, with Democrats outraising Republicans for the first time since the government started tracking such figures. Democrats raised about $80 million, Republicans $52 million. Read more...
Job switch alarms officials; Council to discuss adopting policy on 'revolving door'
April 7, 2007 - The Herald-Sun (Durham, NC)
A former city department head's decision to take a job with a company that's doing more than $64 million worth of business with the city has elected officials wondering if Durham needs to adopt a "revolving-door" policy. Read more...
Dash for campaign cash
April 5, 2007 - The Osgood File, CBS
The Golden Rule in presidential election politics has become whoever's got the gold makes the rules. Mitt Romney has raised much more money than any other Republican and Barack Obama has raised almost as much money as Hillary Clinton. The money race after this. Read more...
Project Raises Ethics Concerns; Grant to Fund Landscaping Near DNR Official's Home was Written by his Wife
April 2, 2007 - Baltimore Sun
Public land next to the Severna Park home of a top Department of Natural Resources official is being landscaped under a state grant written by his wife and approved by one of his employees. Read more...
Case shines light on how war contracts are awarded
February 15, 2007 - San Diego Union Tribune
When Poway defense contractor Brent Wilkes heard that the United States was going to go to war with Iraq, he was ecstatic, say several former colleagues. Read more...
'Astroturf' groups represent industries, not members
February 11, 2007 - The (Chicago) Daily Herald
A group called TV4US Coalition placed advertising inserts in newspapers statewide last week aiming to “educate” consumers on how to get better, more competitive rates for television in Illinois. Is TV4US a tax-exempt non-profit? Yes. Is it a grassroots organization? Hardly. But it looks like one. Read more...
Meehan could keep $5.1 million war chest if he leaves Congress
February 11, 2007 - Associated Press
If Rep. Martin Meehan becomes chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, he'd walk away from Congress with a $5.1 million campaign account, the largest of any House member nationwide. Read more...
One Time Reformer Taps Big Donors
February 11, 2007 - Washington Post
Just about a year and a half ago, Sen. John McCain went to court to try to curtail the influence of a group to which A. Jerrold Perenchio gave $9 million, saying it was trying to "evade and violate" new campaign laws with voter ads ahead of the midterm elections. Read more...
Putin Provokes
February 11, 2007 - Slate
...In another political fundraising story, the WP says John McCain is embracing "some of the same political-money figures, forces and tactics" that he has made a career railing against. There seems to be an effort here to paint McCain as a hypocrite and his presidential campaign and reform efforts as mutually exclusive. Read more...
Burton forgoes votes to play golf
February 6, 2007 - Gannett
U.S. Rep. Dan Burton skipped 19 House votes, including measures to reduce college costs and cut oil industry tax breaks, so he could play in a golf tournament last month in Palm Springs, Calif. Read more...
Grassroots group or Astroturf?
January 23, 2007 - The (Ottawa) Times
They are so-called grassroots groups that appear to champion causes important to the "ordinary Joe" such as lower cable rates, reliable electricity and accessible health care. But scratch beneath the surface and some groups are little more than public relations fronts for corporate and other interests. Read more...
Lobbyist for FCC hired by Comcast
November 16, 2006 - Philadelphia Inquirer
Mary McManus, Comcast Corp.'s newest Federal Communications Commission lobbyist, will be on familiar territory. Before joining the Philadelphia cable company this month, she worked in the FCC's Office of General Counsel, in a bureau that focuses on competition in the telecommunications industry, according to an announcement from Comcast yesterday. Read more...
Tech, Telecom Donations Flow To Newly Empowered Democrats
November 8, 2006 - National Journal
In the runup to Tuesday's election, Microsoft, Time Warner and other deep-pocketed telecommunications and technology giants filled the campaign coffers of House Democrats who will now emerge as key powerbrokers with their party having captured a House majority. Read more...
Many eyes will watch the polls
November 1, 2006 - USA Today
Thousands of lawyers, election monitors and volunteers with video cameras will be mobilized on Election Day in an effort to guard against problems at the polls. The Justice Department will dispatch more than 800 observers, a record for a non-presidential election year, to look for evidence of discrimination, intimidation and other obstacles to voter accessibility in at least 20 states. Read more...
Consumer groups oppose changes to FCC rule
October 20, 2006 - Portland Press Herald
Mainers could lose local reporting at their newspapers and television stations if the Federal Communications Commission allows mergers in the same towns, a coalition of consumer groups warned Thursday. Read more...
New Laws and Machines May Spell Voting Woes
October 19, 2006 - New York Times
New electronic voting machines have arrived in Yolo County, Calif., but there is one hitch: the audio program for the visually impaired in some of them works only in Vietnamese. “Talk about panic,” said Freddy Oakley, the county’s top election official. “I’ve got gray-haired ladies as poll workers standing around looking stunned.” As dozens of states are enforcing new voter registration laws and switching to paperless electronic voting systems, officials across the country are bracing for an Election Day with long lines and heightened confusion, followed by an increase in the number of contested results. Read more...
Turn up the heat on the Hill
By Chellie Pingree
October 6, 2006 - Baltimore Sun
Maybe only a sex scandal can wake up a somnolent Congress and so outrage the American public that this sordid event becomes the catalyst for real change. This is a story of two kinds of addictions: Rep. Mark Foley's alleged addiction to alcohol and presumed addiction to House pages, and the addiction of House leaders to winning elections at all cost. You can go into rehab for alcohol and sex addictions. Unfortunately, there are no such facilities for those addicted to power. Read more...
Bush's Sitcom Nominee
By Celia Wexler
September 13, 2006 - The Nation
Question: Who wrote the following passage?
"I have met President Bush twice. I have no powerful political connections--both times were the result of sizable checks written by me to support his campaign. Both times I was one of several hundred, if not thousand, people he met that day." Read more...
Witnesses Concerned About Ballot Safety
July 20, 2006 - Roll Call
Although the Election Assistance Commission has approved the first set of security and accuracy standards for new-generation voting machines, expert witnesses at a joint hearing of the Science and House Administration committees on Wednesday agreed the standards are insufficient. Read more...
Taking the paper trail to Washington
July 20, 2006 - Salon.com
White T-shirts are a significant departure from the standard dress code in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill. So when a couple dozen activists walked into a joint meeting of the Science and Administration committees Wednesday wearing bleached cotton instead of the typical pantsuits and striped ties, it was not surprising that someone dispatched a Capitol Police officer to stand guard in case things got out of hand. Read more...
Protecting the 2006 Vote
July 19, 2006 - TomPaine.com
How many electronic voting machines can dance on the head of a pin? That’s nearly how arcane today’s raging, almost theological, arguments among progressives have become over the lost 2004 election. Read more...
Telecom, remystified
June 13, 2006 - US News.com, America's Business
Quick: Name a consumer offering, besides gasoline, that has been getting more expensive, not less. It's not food or clothing or electronics or anything sold at Wal-Mart. But take a look at your cable TV bill. Odds are high that the channels you subscribe to cost considerably more than five or 10 years ago. In fact, the price of cable has risen by nearly 70 percent over the past 10 years, nearly twice the rate of inflation. Read more...
The Internet's Long War
By Dawn Holian
May 24, 2006 - TomPaine.com
Failure to preserve net neutrality now would open the door to allowing Internet service providers to create a two-tiered Internet, with a “fast lane” accessible to only those who can afford to pay the fees to telephone and cable giants. Read more...
Keep Internet free, fast
By Chellie Pingree
May 9, 2006 - Miami Herald
Imagine you're a voter searching the Internet for information about an upcoming election. You go to the candidates' websites, but the videos of their speeches and debates won't load. You log on to an advocacy site that had an interesting blog and other interactive tools to help you learn about the candidates and issues last year -- but now it doesn't work properly either. You search for the day's campaign news, but your Internet service provider seems to be steering you to download episodes of Commander in Chief and buy a DVD of The American President. Read more...
Congress shaping telecom law in private
Real work will be done in conference committee, where the public has no influence but lobbyists do.
May 7, 2006 - Statesman.com
The House and Senate are preparing to vote on telecommunications legislation that could affect every American who surfs the Internet, watches cable TV or uses a phone. Read more...
Lobby Reform Lite
March 31, 2006 - The New York Times
With the ghost of Jack Abramoff, the recently sentenced rogue lobbyist, wafting above the debate, the Senate has voted for a halfhearted package of reforms that would come nowhere near curing the easy money, quid pro quo culture that now bedevils the Capitol. Read more...
Senate Approves Limits on High-Profile Lobbying
March 30, 2006 - LA Times
The Senate voted Wednesday to impose new rules to rein in the clout wielded by lobbyists on Capitol Hill, but critics charged the measure would fall short of significantly curbing the influence peddling. Read more...
Senate OKs Bill to Help Curb Lobbyists' Influence
March 30, 2006 - San Francisco Chronicle
The Senate, trying to lift the shadow of ethical scandals over Congress, approved a bill Wednesday aimed at curbing the influence of lobbyists and making it more difficult to attach pork-barrel spending to bills at the last minute. Read more...
Ethics Legislation Moves to House
March 30, 2006 - Associated Press
On the day former lobbyist Jack Abramoff was sentenced to prison, the Senate took steps to mend its ways with ethics legislation that shines light on lawmaker relations with lobbyists. Read more...
Limited Ethics Bill Approved as Lobbyist Gets Prison Time
March 29, 2006 - USA Today
The Senate voted Wednesday to force greater disclosure of how lobbyists sway lawmakers, but stopped short of banning some major tools of the influence trade. Read more...
False Promises on Ethics
March 24, 2006 - Orlando Sentinel
After former lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to bribery and other crimes in January, leaders in Congress resolved to curb the corrupting power of influence peddlers on Capitol Hill. That resolve seems to be evaporating like an ice cube in July. Read more...
Disclosure Laws Don't Validate Congressional Perks
March 23, 2006 - Rchmond Times Dispatch
Records are being broken for free trips by Congressmen to the great golf courses of the world, paid for by private sponsors who often have direct interests in legislation on Capitol Hill. Read more...
Meaningful Lobby Reform is Overdue
March 22, 2006 - Lancaster New Era
After a fast start, lobbying reform in Congress is sputtering - and may not even make it to the finish line. A proposal offered in the U.S. House on Thursday only slightly resembles the aggressive measure circulated previously by House Speaker Dennis Hastert. Hastert, in the wake of the political fallout from the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, had urged permanently banning members of Congress from accepting privately financed trips on corporate jets, overseas junkets and gifts worth more than $20, such as meals or tickets to sporting events. He also wanted to ban pork-barrel spending or "earmarks" and strip former members of their visiting privileges to the House floor or in the House gym if they became lobbyists. Read more...
Congress Gets Cold Feet on Ethics Legislation
March 21, 2006 - The Tennessean
Once the stink over Jack Abramoff's antics reached a peak in Washington, congressional leaders embarked on lobbying reform. But now that it's getting down to actual tough measures to bolster ethics rules, members seem to be getting cold feet. Read more...
Shaming Congress Away from Pork Barrel Won't Work
March 18, 2006 - The Portales News-Tribune
There's a serious flaw in the thinking of reformers who believe congressional pork-barrel spending can be curbed forcing members to attach their names to the pet projects (or "earmarks") they slip into appropriations bills, in circumvention of the normal budget procedures. Read more...
Without Enforcement, Ethics Regulations Fail
March 18, 2006 - San Antonio Express-News
The high-profile indictment of lobbyist Jack Abramoff -- and his subsequent guilty plea in January -- on corruption charges started a brief congressional derby. While cameras were rolling, members of both parties raced to outdo one another on ethics reform. Read more...
The Lobbyist Quandry
March 17, 2006 - The Journal News
If the House is at all serious about ethics reform, the Republican leadership will not politicize the issue by bringing in campaign-finance reform designed to reduce the sort of fund-raising that has benefited mostly Democrats. That's a guarantee of no ethics reform. Read more...
Hold the Cheers
March 15, 2006 - The News & Observer
If United States senators, on visits to their home states, boast of ethics reform, audiences may be forgiven if they hold the applause. The Senate has just passed a reform bill that bans all gifts and even meals from lobbyists. But let us not forget that this reform came after the scandal surrounding Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist who was famed for supplying luxury golf trips and other perks to lawmakers who were only too willing to take them. Read more...
Short Attention Span
March 20, 2006 - Houston Chronicle
Back in January the crimes of lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the fear of more indictments had U.S. House and Senate leaders promising tough legislation to curb special interest influence on Capitol Hill. They also hoped to remove some of the tarnish from Congress' image. Read more...
Lobbying Reform Loses Steam on Capitol Hill
March 26, 2006 - Miami Herald
It's hard to believe that only two months ago a story about the ripple effect of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal in Washington began this way: ''Reform fever gripped Capitol Hill this week.'' The story depicted lawmakers tripping over each other in a frantic rush to mollify angry constituents by proposing new ways to curb lobbying and cut down on the sleaze. That was then. Today, members of Congress are breathing a sigh of relief because the reform drive is faltering. If reform isn't dead, it's clearly on life support. Read more...
Where's the Lobbying Reform?
March 22, 2006 - Toledo Blade
Expectations abounded on the part of voters and taxpayers in the wake of the Jack Abramoff and Rep. Randy Cunningham ethics scandals that Congress would take action to clamp down on lobbying practices and congressional corruption. Read more...
Lobbying Reform Must Be a Priority for Congress
March 26, 2006 - Sacramento Bee
The U.S. Senate and House are moving warily toward lobbying reform in the aftermath of multiple scandals and guilty pleas, from Rep. Duke Cunningham, R-San Diego, to lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Read More...
Don't Slow-walk Lobbying Reform
March 14, 2006 - Carlisle Sentinel
Lobbying probably isn't the world's oldest profession, but it's probably one of the oldest white-collar occupations. Even the earliest tribal leaders had to sort out competing requests for favors from their followers. Read More...
Lobbying Reform Faltering
March 15, 2006 - Denver Post
Scarcely more than two months ago, Washington politicians of all stripes lined up to promise that they'd tighten the lax rules that have been allowing big-money lobbyists to line their pockets. Read More...
A Start on Lobbying Reform
March 6, 2006 - Washington Post
This week the Senate plans to take up lobbying reform, melding two measures that would be an improvement on the current system of inadequate disclosure and lax rules. But the measures that emerged from two Senate committees last week don't go nearly far enough to fix the abuses that got the attention of the public -- and therefore lawmakers -- in the first place. The floor debate will feature a package of critical amendments on strengthening enforcement, cracking down on the cut-rate use of corporate aircraft, and imposing limits on gifts and travel -- in all, giving senators a chance to produce a truly significant lobbying reform measure for the House to act on. Read More...
Regulating the Web
By Chellie Pingree
March 21, 2006 - Washington Post
The March 13 editorial "The Eden Illusion" said that Internet service providers should be able to create tiers on the Internet because Web surfers already gravitate toward sites they know and trust. However, a tiered structure would discriminate against upstarts and innovators and destroy the democratic nature that has made the Internet thrive. Read More...
Good Gov't Sorely Needs its Gadflies
March 17, 2006 - The Herald-Palladium
The late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once said that sunshine is the best disinfectant to make sure government runs properly. But sometimes it also takes a gadfly. Read More...
Bloggers Join Fray on Political Ads
By Celia Wexler
March 15, 2006 - The Nation
It has not received much mainstream media attention, but a huge battle is brewing in Congress this week as the House of Representatives considers two bills that will determine to what extent campaign finance rules apply to the Internet. Support or opposition to these bills does not split neatly along party lines. Indeed, the debate has brought together two opposing players in the blogosphere, the liberal Daily Kos and the conservative Red State. These two mega-blogs support one of the bills, while other members of the Internet community strongly endorse a competing measure. Read more...
Congress Must Guarantee 'Net Neutrality' Now
February 9, 2006 - The Clarion-Ledger
Third District U.S. Rep. Chip Pickering has a key role to play in the House next month. He is one of a handful of House members attempting to forge a bipartisan deal on legislation rewriting the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Read More...
Senators Mull an Internet With Restrictions
By Celia Wexler and Dawn Holian
February 8, 2006 - The Nation
It may have been the first and last hearing the US Senate holds on Net neutrality--the principle that Internet users should be able to access any web content or use any applications they choose, without restrictions or limitations imposed by an Internet service provider. Read More...
Cleanup Time
January 25, 2006 - Winston-Salem Journal
It's time to throw the baby out with the bath water in Washington. Influence-buying in the nation's capital has reached such excess that Congress should adopt all the proposals being offered by both parties and worry later that it might have gone too far with reform. Read More...
Amid Scandals, States Overhaul Lobbying Laws
January 24, 2006 - New York Times
Stung by their own scandals, lawmakers in many states have outpaced Washington in enacting new laws intended to curb the cozy and at times corrupt relationships between lobbyists and politicians.
Read More...
Groups Say Ethics Proposals Fall Short
January 23, 2006 - Jim Abrams, Associated Press
Congressional proposals to end corrupt and unseemly ties with lobbyists fall short because they don't sufficiently address the role of lobbyists in raising money for politicians, private groups said Monday. Read More...
As Congress Weighs Lobbying Limits, Fears That Some Perks Will Be Overlooked
January 22, 2006 - New York Times
The party at the New York Yacht Club, a lavish salute to Senator Bill Frist during the 2004 Republican National Convention, was wall-to-wall with politicians, lobbyists and members of the news media treating themselves to the best their money did not have to buy. Read More...
Santorum is Touting his Roots in Reform
But, once an outsider critical of Democratic corruption, he's now in the leadership of a GOP plagued by scandal.
January 22, 2006 - Philadelphia Inquirer
He once compared Congress to a rat's nest, and its entrenched Democratic leaders to bullies who "don't want anyone else to play in their sandbox." Rick Santorum, as a freshman representative and founder of the reform-minded Gang of Seven, set out to topple both. Read More...
Democrats Claim a Better Idea on Controlling Lobbying
January 19, 2006 - New York Times
Congressional Democrats proposed a lobbying overhaul on Wednesday that they said far exceeded new Republican proposals in curbing the influence of moneyed special interests on Capitol Hill. Read More...
Political Corruption Isn't Limited to Washington Bigwigs
From State Officials to DMV Employees, Ethics Problems Abound
January 18, 2006 - ABC World News Tonight
In the wake of a mounting lobbyist corruption scandal, Republicans and Democrats have issued their own proposals aimed at tightening federal lobbying laws. Read More...
House Democrats Offer their Own Bills on Lobbying Ethics
January 18, 2006 - USA Today
Congressional Democrats urged a ban on all gifts and travel paid for by lobbyists Wednesday, aiming to seize an issue for the fall elections and taking a shot at Republicans they say have sullied Congress' reputation. Read More...
Lobbying Reform Easier Said than Done
January 16, 2006 - San Francisco Chronicle
Washington -- The scandal involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff has congressional leaders from House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., clamoring for changes in the way lobbyists deal with Congress. Read More...
Ethics Panel Remains Silent
January 15th, 2006 - Tri-City Herald
WASHINGTON -- The House Ethics Committee, chaired by Rep. Doc Hastings, has sat idle the past year as Congress faces what could become one of the worst scandals in its history. Read More...
Scandals Force Talk of Ethics Reform
Congress considers curbs on lobbyists' gifts, access
January 14, 2006 - Toby Eckert, Copley News Service
WASHINGTON – Golf trips to Scotland. Cut-rate travel aboard corporate jets. Free meals at posh restaurants. Luxury seats at sporting events. Those are a few of the perks that are perfectly legal for members of Congress to accept from lobbyists seeking their votes, despite lawmakers' self-imposed regulations designed to limit the buying and selling of influence. Read More...
It Takes a Scandal
January 12, 2006 - Marie Cocco
The body politic is accustomed to seeing the political world through lenses of red and blue, and a spirit of unanimity rarely seizes the citizenry. Except, it turns out, when the public looks at corruption and sees that the antidote is a healthy serving of common sense. Read More...
House GOP Considering New Travel Rules
January 11, 2006 - Jim Abrams, Associated Press
WASHINGTON - House Republicans, seeking to recover their standing with voters in the wake of a lobbying scandal, are considering a total ban on privately funded congressional trips, the lawmaker leading the reform effort said Wednesday. Read More...
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