News Clips

"It is clear from the evidence made public by the January 6th Committee that Rep. Perry does not respect the will of the voters. No elected official should remain in office, if they do not respect the voters who put them there. We must not continue down this path," said Khalif Ali, Common Cause Pennsylvania executive director.

"Even if Members of Congress aren't fully aware of their own stock portfolios, just the perception that they're taking actions to line their own pockets can be really damaging," said Aaron Scherb, senior director of legislative affairs for nonpartisan government watchdog organization Common Cause. "When Members of Congress are allowed to take votes and make other official actions that influence companies in which elected officials own stock, it looks and smells bad."

Aaron Scherb, senior director of legislative affairs for Common Cause, said this means big donors can funnel huge amounts of cash directly to newly elected officials. "This decision is yet another example of the Supreme Court allowing more big money in politics and further opening the door to corruption and big moneyed interests calling the shots," Scherb contended. ... Scherb emphasized he hopes it will drum up more support for the DISCLOSE Act, which would require campaigns and groups spending money to influence politics to report more about their funding, but he is not optimistic. "We're not holding our breaths that 10 Senate Republicans would vote for something like this," Scherb acknowledged. "But if more big money is going to be spent in politics, it absolutely has to be disclosed. The public deserves to see who's trying to influence their voices and their votes."

“Today’s decision creates a shell game that will only serve to further undermine public faith in their elected officials. These loans could run into the millions of dollars and voters will now not know who bankrolled a candidate’s campaign until after the election,” said Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause.

Stephen Spaulding, senior counsel for public policy at good government group Common Cause, told The Daily Beast that disclosure rules are valuable precisely for these scenarios. “Disclosure of Members’ financial holdings is a way for their constituents to evaluate potential conflicts of interest and hold their elected leaders accountable to the public interest. That’s what the transparency concerning Rep. Luria’s financial holdings in Facebook affords the public in this example,” Spaulding said. He added that proposed reforms “ought to be a pillar of consensus” in Congress.

Aaron Scherb Common Cause Director, Legislative Affairs: Scherb co-led an umbrella advocacy group made up of 240 organizations to push for passage of the For the People Act, a comprehensive voting-rights package that Republicans opposed.