Congressional Ethics

In this short video, Common Cause Graduate Communications Fellow Kenneth Campbell demonstrates why every American should be demanding an impeachment inquiry now. Thanks also to summer intern Isabel Giovannetti for her work on this and other video projects.

Aaron Scherb, director of legislative affairs for the good government group Common Cause, said lawmakers who provide the information helps promote transparency. "It's critically important for the public to have faith and confidence that their elected officials are doing the people's business, not the bidding of special interests," Scherb said.

Today, Common Cause is launching a new effort to ensure voters’ right to know where presidential candidates stand on practical solutions to the challenges facing our democracy. The Our Democracy 2020 campaign will focus getting every presidential candidate in the Democratic and Republican primaries to respond to a 17-question survey and inject the high priority conversation on the need for democracy reform in the presidential campaign. 

“If any connection with Kirkland and Ellis is a stain on (senior Justice Department officials), why isn’t a connection with the law firm for the receipt of campaign contributions a stain on her own campaign?” said Paul S. Ryan, an attorney for the good government group Common Cause.

Joanne Antoine, executive director of Common Cause Maryland, a government watchdog group, said the Examiner article raises the possibility of a conflict of interest or self-dealing. Rockeymoore Cummings “should take steps to disclose possible conflicts with the Johnson Foundation and to disclose the financial records from the nonprofit in question,” Antoine said. Regardless of whether Rockeymoore Cummings is correct in saying that the Legal and Policy Center was “after her and her husband,” Antoine added, “it doesn’t mean that there aren’t valid pieces in there.”

Score one for the people. The House passed the For the People Act in the face of stiff opposition from K Street’s corporate lobbyists and special interests. The legislation truly is for the people, bundling together a comprehensive set of long-overdue democracy reforms at a time when democratic norms are under siege in our nation. Many of the reforms included in H.R. 1 are tested reforms that are working at the state and local level with bipartisan support to restore the rule of law, empower the voices of all Americans, curb abusive partisan gerrymandering, and strengthen the right to vote for every eligible American.