News Clips

“It’s really outrageous on a number of fronts,” said Beth Rotman, money in politics and ethics program director at Common Cause, a national group that promotes government accountability. “This ethics agency has a job to do for everyday Americans,” Rotman said. “They have a job to do for we the people who have these laws in place, and they have a job to do and if there has been any potential issue they need to investigate, they need to be able to start to do their jobs and go forward with this without potential retribution, which is what this looks like from here.”

"We've seen real-life harm caused by election disinformation," said Jesse Littlewood, vice president for campaigns with Common Cause, a voter advocacy group. He cited the Capitol attack. "It is abundantly clear that we live in a time of increased threats of violence against election officials and poll workers fueled by election disinformation and conspiracy theories and like a pile of dry kindling it only takes a spark to ignite real world violence," Littlewood wrote in an email.

My dream is to live in an inclusive democracy that lives up to its promise. Where everyone has a say in the future for their family and community; where anyone can run for public office; where everyone plays by the same fair rules; and where our government reflects who we are because people vote in high numbers. We must not yield to a cynicism that says we can never improve. Making the dream real means ensuring those who represent us are reflective and responsive to the people—not the wealthy who dominate campaign and lobbyist spending. It means ending voter suppression that silences Black and brown voters; replacing unaccountable secret money in elections with small dollar donor laws that shift power from wealthy special interests to the people; ending racial and partisan gerrymandering by shifting power from politicians to impartial commissions; and preventing election sabotage that would steal power from voters by overturning elections. —Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause

“Texas has the weakest, most corruption-prone campaign finance system in the country,” said Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas. “It is striking that our top law enforcement official can’t manage to meet our extremely low disclosure requirements.” It’s important for voters to know who is donating to a candidate, Gutierrez said, especially in a state where there’s no cap on contributions. “We really can’t make decisions about whether a public official is acting in our best interest or the interest of some random rich person unless we know who those rich people are giving their money to,” he said.

Congressional action alone cannot solve the problem. A holistic approach to holding platforms accountable also requires regulatory reform, executive action, and corporate accountability. The White House must continue to push relevant federal agencies to use their enforcement, rule-making, and investigatory authorities to go after some of the most harmful business practices of the big tech companies – invasive data collection, inconsistent content moderation, discriminatory uses of algorithms, and more.  The new year represents a tremendous opportunity for Congress to return power to the people and hold big tech accountable. 

“Not every behested payment is nefarious, but every behested payment deserves scrutiny,” said Jonathan Mehta Stein, executive director at the good government group California Common Cause. “And the explosion of behested payments recently certainly creates a perception among the public that corporations and players in state politics are using this as an avenue to get around our pay-to-play rules.”