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Money & Influence 06.8.2021

New York Times: Democrats’ Improbable New F.E.C. Strategy: More Deadlock Than Ever

“All the Republican commissioners need to do is include the magic words ‘prosecutorial discretion’ and a court will then decline to review the action,” said Paul S. Ryan, vice president for litigation at Common Cause, who has regularly filed F.E.C. complaints. Indeed, Republican commissioners recently deployed that exact phrase — twice — in dismissing an investigation into whether Mr. Trump violated election laws with the payment of $130,000 to the pornographic actress Stormy Daniels in 2016 to keep her from publicly discussing her relationship with him.

Voting & Elections 06.8.2021

The Guardian: Joe Manchin’s hard no on voting bill leaves Democrats seeking new path

“Republican intransigence on voting rights is not an excuse for inaction and Senator Manchin must wake up to this fact,” said Karen Hobart Flynn, the president of Common Cause, a government watchdog group, which backs the bill. “If Senator Manchin thinks there should be more input from Republicans – as there was in last month’s Senate markup, when several Republican amendments were adopted by the committee – you do that by advancing the bill through the legislative process,” Stephen Spaulding, senior counsel for public policy and government affairs at Common Cause. “Senator Manchin should vote to advance the bill to a full floor debate, and not filibuster the bill with his Republican colleagues.”

Money & Influence 06.5.2021

NBC Think (Op-Ed): FEC's Trump hush money fine is a win for democracy — with a bittersweet aftertaste

Common Cause has always maintained that Trump cheated en route to winning the 2016 election by violating campaign finance laws. Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and fixer, was sentenced in 2018 for, in part, orchestrating payments to help to cover up Trump’s alleged affairs. Now the other big player, AMI, has been fined. But to date there’s been no accountability for Trump. Here’s the backstory on Trump’s alleged crimes and why they matter.

Money & Influence 06.3.2021

The Hill: Court sides with Ted Cruz in campaign finance lawsuit

“With this limit struck down, officeholders can raise money after an election and that money effectively goes straight into their pockets in the form of a loan repayment,” said Paul S. Ryan, vice president of policy & litigation at Common Cause. “This is the most potentially corrupting money in all of politics.”

New York Times: 2 Leading Manhattan D.A. Candidates Face the Trump Question

Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York, a good government advocacy group, said in an interview that while Ms. Farhadian Weinstein would not have been required to disclose the meeting publicly in the district attorney’s race, the information was “certainly relevant to the job she’s applying for.” “It’s information that voters will want to consider, and it’s up to them to decide how this factors into their ultimate choice,” Ms. Lerner said.

Voting & Elections 06.2.2021

The Guardian: Texas Democrats set example by facing down Republican voting rights assault

“I hope it sends a really strong message to Democrats in Congress, especially in the Senate, that these fights are especially important. Democracy is literally at risk and you have to do absolutely everything you possibly can do,” said Anthony Gutierrez, the executive director of the Texas chapter of Common Cause, a government watchdog group. “This wasn’t Democrats shutting down the rules. This was them using every single thing to their advantage, taking a stand to protect voting rights.”

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