News Clips

Virginia Kase Solomón will be the next president and CEO of Common Cause. Currently CEO of the League of Women Voters, she will start her new role in February and will be the first Hispanic person to lead the democratic watchdog. She succeeds Karen Hobert Flynn, who died this spring after three decades with the organization.

John Marion, executive director of the government watchdog group Common Cause Rhode Island, said it was difficult to pinpoint exactly why Rhode Island had such a large overcount. There were significant outreach efforts and the state has a large summer home population, but the same applied to other states, he said. “We’re essentially the lucky beneficiary of a statistical anomaly,” Marion said. “And as a result, we’ll have more representation in Congress for 10 years.”

Not all of those honored on this list are registered lobbyists. But they are all key players who the nation’s biggest companies, advocacy groups, labor unions and trade associations turn to when they want their voices heard in the nation’s capital. The ranks of policy experts, influencers and advocates run deep in Washington, but these are the people who stand out for delivering results for their clients in the halls of Congress and the administration. ... GRASSROOTS: Karen Hobert Flynn and Aaron Scherb, Common Cause 

“We think our process will produce better maps -- maps that better serve the interests of voters and communities,” said Julia Vaughn, executive director of Common Cause Indiana, which helped form the citizens commission. Dan Vicuna, national redistricting manager for Common Cause, said there are efforts underway across the country “trying to shame the legislature into doing the right thing.” But if lawmakers don’t adopt citizens’ redistricting suggestions, “we think it could be more powerful to judges, who have less of a partisan stake in how these districts are drawn,” Vicuna said.

“We should have representation that reflects the composition of the state,” said Aunna Dennis, executive director for the government accountability organization Common Cause Georgia. “That could mean districts that look more red, more purple or more blue. That should be a reflection of the ideology of the community.”

"We will see a lot of lawsuits," said Kathay Feng, the national redistricting director at the good government group Common Cause, chuckling at a question about how much litigation there will be this redistricting cycle. Redistricting, she said, “is always a breeding ground for people who are discontent with the results.”