Press Release
Government Watchdog Supports New Bill to Ban Members of Congress from Trading Stock
Majority of Americans support a stock trading ban
Press
Media Contacts
Katie Scally
Communications Director
kscally@commoncause.org
202-736-5713
Ariana Marmolejo
Communications Strategist
amarmolejo@commoncause.org
Kenny Colston
Regional Communications Strategist (Midwest)
kcolston@commoncause.org
Maya Majikas
Communications Strategist
mmajikas@commoncause.org
Common Cause’s network of national and state democracy reform experts are frequent media commentators. To talk with one of our experts, please reach out to any member of the press team above.
News Clip
Baltimore Sun: Who paid lobbyists a total of $48.8 million to influence Maryland lawmaking, and what did they get?
"I'm shocked every time I see how much money is being spent," said Joanne Antoine, executive director of Common Cause Maryland. The nonprofit group does its own lobbying for "good government" bills, like those that expand ethics laws or transparency around money in politics.
Antoine said the disclosures can help the public "connect the dots"
on how both major institutions and grassroots advocates affect legislation.
"Unfortunately, this is where they have the advantage over organizations like ours,"...
Antoine said the disclosures can help the public "connect the dots"
on how both major institutions and grassroots advocates affect legislation.
"Unfortunately, this is where they have the advantage over organizations like ours,"...
News Clip
Bolts: Wisconsin’s Election Office In Limbo After GOP Tries To Force Out Its Director
“Either way, we’re screwed,” warned Jay Heck, the executive director of the good-government group Common Cause’s Wisconsin chapter.
Press Release
Protecting Our Democracy Act Will Curb Abuses of Power by Future Presidents
No American is above the law, not even the President. But we learned during the Trump administration that existing laws are not sufficient to prevent abuses of the Office of the President. We need strong guardrails in the form of laws. We need the Protecting Our Democracy Act to provide greater checks and balances to the powers of the presidency while creating new mechanisms for transparency and accountability.
News Clip
USA Today/Center for Public Integrity: ‘Lose the courts, lose the war’: The battle over voting in North Carolina
Common Cause North Carolina’s Bob Phillips called the ruling “the worst decision, perhaps, the state Supreme Court has ever made.” In her dissent, Justice Anita Earls wrote that “today’s result was preordained on 8 November 2022, when two new members of this Court were elected to establish this Court’s conservative majority.”
Press Release
Gambling on U.S. Elections Would Pose Profound Threat to Democracy, Common Cause Warns CFTC
Today, Common Cause urged the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to reject a request to legalize gambling on U.S. election outcomes. In a filing in response to the CFTC’s request for public comment, Common Cause emphasized that KalshiEX, LLC (“Kalshi”)’s proposed Congressional control event contract posed “new and profound threats to the integrity of our democracy and our elections.”
News Clip
USA Today/Center for Public Integrity: How Republicans flipped America’s state supreme courts
Adding partisan labels “encourages the candidates and voters to think about these justices as partisan actors,” said Common Cause Ohio’s Catherine Turcer. “And that's a real problem when it comes to wanting an independent, impartial judiciary.”
Press Release
Common Cause Welcomes Ishan Mehta as Director of Media & Democracy Program
Common Cause is pleased to announce that Ishan Mehta has joined Common Cause as the Director of the Media and Democracy Program. Ishan will lead program staff and build on the program started by former FCC Commissioner & Common Cause Special Advisor Michael Copps. He will lead campaigns to engage the public and policy makers on key initiatives including promoting an open internet, fostering competition in the media marketplace, and ensuring broadband access for all Americans.
News Clip
Texas Tribune/VoteBeat: Texas begins withdrawal from multistate partnership to clean voter rolls
Katya Ehresman, voting rights program manager at Common Cause, a nonprofit that advocates for voting rights and government accountability, said the state’s chief elections officer should instead be “making it easier to exercise our right to vote.”
“Deploying partisan tactics like this only stands to scare people away from the ballot box and doesn’t do anything to strengthen the security of our state’s elections,” she said.
“Deploying partisan tactics like this only stands to scare people away from the ballot box and doesn’t do anything to strengthen the security of our state’s elections,” she said.
News Clip
Tampa Bay Times/PolitiFact: A pro-Ron DeSantis ad used AI to create Donald Trump’s voice. It won’t be the last, experts say
While the pro-DeSantis ad accurately shares Trump’s words from the Truth Social post, Common Cause disinformation analyst Emma Steiner said she still found the use of AI-generated content in a political campaign "concerning."
"In an information environment where voters are faced with a deluge of false and misleading information, AI content has the potential to muddy the waters even more," she said. "My major concern is that there are, as yet, very few ‘rules of the road’ for the use of AI in political campaigns at a...
"In an information environment where voters are faced with a deluge of false and misleading information, AI content has the potential to muddy the waters even more," she said. "My major concern is that there are, as yet, very few ‘rules of the road’ for the use of AI in political campaigns at a...
News Clip
Raw Story/Common Dreams: ‘Our Democracy demands it’: Rights groups cheer as Dems revive Freedom to Vote act
Common Cause interim co-president Marilyn Carpinteyro on Tuesday sent a letter to all members of Congress on behalf of her group and its more than 1.5 million members and supporters "in strong support of the Freedom to Vote Act and in strong opposition to the 'American Confidence in Elections' (ACE) Act," which was introduced by House Republicans earlier this month.
"The ACE Act is a giant step backward and would silence the voices of everyday Americans by putting up barriers to voting and by allowing millions of dollars...
"The ACE Act is a giant step backward and would silence the voices of everyday Americans by putting up barriers to voting and by allowing millions of dollars...
Press Release
Common Cause Urges Support for the Freedom to Vote Act
Today, Common Cause is urging every member of the United States Senate and House of Representatives to support the Freedom to Vote Act (S. 1/H.R.11), a transformational pro-voter, anti-corruption bill, and to oppose the House’s anti-voter “American Confidence in Elections” (ACE) Act. In a letter to the full Senate and House, Common Cause emphasized that the Freedom to Vote Act will strengthen Americans’ freedom to make their voices heard at the polls, end partisan gerrymandering, combat dangerous election sabotage efforts, and help to...
News Clip
NBC News: North Carolina elections at risk of chaos with Legislature’s proposed overhaul
“How do they get anything done? Are the important decisions going to be deadlocked? The consequences of that, as we are learning, could be devastating,” said Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina.
Early voting polling sites and schedules must be approved by the unanimous support of a county election board under current law, Phillips said. If a member of the county board objects, the state board must decide. If it cannot, he said, current law says the only early voting site would be the county board...
Early voting polling sites and schedules must be approved by the unanimous support of a county election board under current law, Phillips said. If a member of the county board objects, the state board must decide. If it cannot, he said, current law says the only early voting site would be the county board...
