Executive Ethics

Common Cause Rhode Island Executive Director John Marion Jr. credited the board's decision to dig deeper on the Matos signatures and to do it in public. "The board made that decision in the right way – after publicly debating the tradeoffs they face," Marion wrote. "We won’t know how to fix this signature process moving forward unless we know the scope of the problem now."

“This is an area where a lot of money is involved. The state is offering big incentives involving our tax dollars to corporations, and Hoosiers deserve to know the backstory,” said Julia Vaughn, who leads government watchdog Common Cause Indiana. “But I think the IEDC and its foundation: their structure often stops that from happening.” Vaughn said her organization expressed transparency-related concerns when the state swapped its commerce department for the corporation-foundation combination. “I’m afraid our worst fears have come true,” she concluded. “… It’s simply another way for these corporate interests to flex their muscle, and in a way that happens completely in the dark.”

The Civil Beat Editorial Board spoke on Tuesday with the program director of Common Cause Hawaii. Camron Hurt said the organization under his leadership will focus on elections, voting access, government transparency and campaign finance reform. Hurt began by explaining what Common Cause does.

Geoff Foster, executive director of Common Cause Massachusetts, said while Healey’s use of the nonprofit is legal, it’s an example of why the state needs stronger disclosure laws to dispel any appearance of undue influence on an elected official. “While we know there are precedents for this practice, for us at Common Cause it’s always concerning when private donations to public officials are not fully disclosed,” Foster said.

“We’ve seen…candidates really pushing the envelope here, and there has been a rise in single-candidate super PACs,” said Stephen Spaulding, Vice President of Common Cause, a group dedicated to lessening the impact of special interests in government and politics. “You have super PACs essentially operating as arms of campaigns — only they can take unlimited amounts of money from nearly any source,” Spaulding said. “It’s time for Congress to step in and pass legislation to make clear that independent spending is supposed to be truly independent,” Common Cause’s Spaulding said.

“Greg Abbott either didn’t read this bill closely enough to understand what it really does or is deliberately working to make it harder for Texans with disabilities to vote,” Katya Ehresman, the voting rights manager for Common Cause Texas, said in a statement.