Campaign Finance

Sean McMorris, the transparency, ethics and accountability program manager for good government group California Common Cause, said it becomes an accountability issue because some self-funded candidates don’t engage with voters as much because they don’t need to solicit as many donations. “Money should not dictate who should run for office or who gets elected,” he said. At the congressional level, money plays a large role in the election, and while McMorris said it’s not the “determining factor,” candidates need a minimum of a couple hundred thousand dollars to get their message out. California Common Cause’s McMorris said it’s important that voters look at the bottom of mailers and ads to see if they’re being paid for by the candidate or special interest groups. And while candidates and PACs aren’t allowed to coordinate, McMorris said that “none of us are immune to the influence of money.” “Voters should realize this is a special interest that is more likely than not who is supporting the candidate because they think the candidate will assist them in some way or they think they will have more access to this candidate,” he said. “At the end of the day, most of this comes down to those special interests wanting goodies”

“We would love to see the legislature accomplish this critical issue for our democracy,” Common Cause Oregon, one of the ballot measure’s backers, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the current proposal does not serve the goals we support.”

Sean McMorris, transparency, ethics and accountability program manager for California Common Cause, said super PACs are likely spending more in this race because it's an open seat. McMorris added that even if there's no coordination between candidates and the super PACs, these groups support candidates who they think would best protect the groups' interests. "It sends a strong message," McMorris told San Jose Spotlight. "They're hoping in one way or another that the candidate feels some type of obligation toward them once they're in office and with that obligation, that opens doors potentially for them to get access and influence over the candidate once they're actually seated." McMorris said looking at a super PAC's donors lets voters see which special interests support certain candidates. "At a minimum, they don't want to make any enemies," McMorris said. "All these special interests are fighting to get the person who -- out of all those candidates -- is going to be the most beneficial to them."

“This is money that was contributed to a campaign for a purpose of getting them elected or re-elected to a specific office,” said Jay Heck, the executive director of Common Cause Wisconsin. “And once a member of Congress has decided they’re no longer going to run for that office, it seems to me that any leftover money ought to be liquidated, that the money should either be donated to a charity, maybe given back to the U.S. taxpayers in the form of a contribution to the debt.”

Common Cause Hawaii’s program manager, Camron Hurt, emphasized the need for more comprehensive changes to make Hawaii’s elections free from outside influence, more competitive and more popular. “I think those (other reforms) are all tools to fix the same wheel. Right. So I think we fixed parts of the wheel, but the wheel still isn’t moving as efficiently as it can,” Hunt said.

Today, a New York judge rejected Donald Trump’s attempt to have criminal charges against him thrown out for hush money payments made to Stormy Daniels to keep their affair secret on the eve of the 2016 presidential election. The trial will begin six years after Common Cause filed complaints related to the payments with the Justice Department and the Federal Election Commission. Jury selection is scheduled to begin on March 25.