News Clips

Our democracy has endured wars, pandemics, natural disasters and now a lawless president. And despite that, next year will likely bring more unexpected challenges that we’ll confront as a nation. We nonetheless must be thankful for what we have, as imperfect as our system is. Change has often been cyclical, and following the scandals of the Trump administration, we may soon have a once-in-a-generation opportunity. If one thing is clear, it’s that we’re on the doorstep of passing a comprehensive reform package to put “we the people” back in charge of our democracy.

"The typical donor doesn't read the legal fine print," Paul Ryan, vice president of vice president of policy and litigation at Common Cause, told CNN. Ryan said few restrictions apply on the PAC's spending. Should they choose to do so, Trump and his family members could draw salaries from Save America funds or direct its donors' money to his businesses by hosting PAC events at a Trump-owned properties. "This money could easily -- and legally -- end up in his own pocket in the coming years," Ryan said. And even after the long-shot legal challenges to the 2020 election end, Trump "could tease a 2024 run for years and continue milking his supporters for contributions to this slush fund," he added.

Wisconsin has already done its own canvas, which was completed Tuesday and added 181 votes to Biden's haul, Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause Wisconsin, told reporters in a conference call. It's very rare that a recount changes the outcome of an election, and Biden's 20,608-vote margin of victory in Wisconsin makes it extremely unlikely the state would be awarded to Trump, he said. The Wisconsin recount demand is among a series of efforts the losing Trump campaign has made to challenge the results of the Nov. 3 election, a race Biden won by more than 5.8 million votes nationwide and by a 306-232 Electoral College vote margin. Dozens of lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign and supporters – ranging from the use of Sharpies to fill out Arizona ballots to unproven claims that Republican observers were not allowed to monitor vote counters – have been rejected by the courts or withdrawn. "There's no merit to the lawsuits being brought by Team Trump," Paul S. Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation for Common Cause, told reporters in the conference call. "I think we're seeing a good old-fashioned fundraising bait-and-switch scheme."

Campaign finance experts recoiled at Trainor’s apparent embrace of the dubious allegations. “My biggest concern with Commissioner Trainor is his partisanship, and to the extent that overlaps with the conspiracy theorizing about election fraud, that’s a concern,” said Paul Seamus Ryan, the vice president of litigation with the group Common Cause, in an interview on Tuesday. “The focus should be on the business of the FEC and the suitability of these nominees to do that important work, not on crazy conspiracy theories about nonexistent election fraud,” said Common Cause’s Ryan. But, he added, “nothing would surprise me.”

Democracy is not a state or frame of mind, it is an act guaranteed only by us — the voters. Despite the coronavirus pandemic and the deliberate barriers set to silence the voices of Black people, new Americans and people just struggling to make ends meet, voters turned out in record numbers. We showed up to pick new leaders and pass political reform ballot measures that will shift power to the people and away from politicians. In this act, we — the voters — showed what a democracy that is based on fairness, justice and equality could look like.

Campaign-finance laws were designed to limit the influence of private actors in elections — “to prevent not only the actual corruption of public officials but even the appearance of corruption that could undermine voter faith in government,” as Paul S. Ryan, the vice president of policy and litigation at the election-watchdog group Common Cause, told me.