Today, California Common Cause, a leading democracy reform group, announced their opposition to Governor Newsom’s plan to call for an “Article V” constitutional convention. The bill, SJR 7, would add California to the list of states attempting to rewrite the U.S. Constitution without any rules or governing structure. 

On April 7, 2022, California Common Cause will celebrate the organization’s 50th anniversary and honor “Democracy Heroes” who have played vital roles in the fight to strengthen democracy in California. The event will also celebrate the former staff and board members who helped make possible the organization’s accomplishments over the past five decades while laying the groundwork for our next 50 years. 

Today, California Common Cause lauded San Francisco’s ban on government officials soliciting behested payments from “interested parties” in the wake of a string of controversies involving those payments. The first-of-its-kind ban in California, which went into effect last week, was adopted in response to a massive corruption scandal that was exposed in 2020 involving multiple city departments and high-ranking city officials. Behested payments appear to have played a significant role in the scandal. California Common Cause touted San Francisco’s behested payment law as a model for other jurisdictions and the state to follow.

Today, redistricting reform proponents, civil rights groups, and grassroots organizations from across the state filed an amicus letter in support of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission's emergency motion asking the California Supreme Court to extend the Commission's redistricting deadline in light of unprecedented Census delays.

After record voter turnout for the November 2020 elections, more than 360 voter suppression laws to limit access to the ballot box have been introduced by legislators in 47 states. Against this backdrop of voter suppression, a new report from California Common Cause shares another story: how California moved swiftly to strengthen access to the ballot in the 2020 general election during the pandemic.