Report Shows that California Can Strengthen Protections Against Public Corruption

LOS ANGELES — As the Center for Public Integrity and Global Integrity released the State Integrity Investigation, a data-driven assessment of state government accountability and transparency, Kathay Feng, Executive Director of California Common Cause, made the following statement:

California’s C- grade in the 2015 State Integrity Investigation shows that our state has more work to do in order to guard against corruption. The report graded states based on 245 measures on topics such as access to information, campaign finance, ethics oversight, and lobbying regulations.

The benchmark report highlights ways that California could better ensure that our governments operate in public view and in the public’s interest – for instance, by bringing more transparency and accountability to the money behind political campaigns.

The public should be able to have faith that strong protections are in place to keep our government honest. We encourage the legislature, when it reconvenes, to address the shortcomings identified in this report. Common Cause will continue to work with a broad range of stakeholders to identify solutions that restore public confidence in our democracy.

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