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Voting & Elections 04.6.2021

TIME: Marc Elias Fought Trump's 2020 Election Lawsuits. Can He Win The Battle Over Voting Rights?

Elias has also been scrutinized by watchdog groups for his work on campaign finance issues, including his role in convincing the Federal Election Commission to loosen restrictions on congressional lawmakers engaging with Super PACs. “He is not a big fan of restrictions on money in politics,” says Paul S. Ryan, Vice President of Policy and Litigation at the non-partisan accountability group Common Cause. “He has done a very good job as an attorney of fighting for the ability of political parties to raise and spend money however they choose.”

Voting & Elections 04.6.2021

The Guardian: The next Georgia: Texas and Arizona emerge as voting rights battlegrounds

Anthony Gutierrez, the executive director of the Texas chapter of Common Cause, a government watchdog group, said those statements were significant and could help sway lawmakers, including Dade Phelan, the speaker of the Texas house of representatives. Gutierrez has been involved in fights over voting rights for over a decade and said he could not recall another instance where there was the kind of broad opposition to the bills that exists now. “A lot of us are thinking that Texas is the next Georgia, but I think the big difference is all these prominent voices weighing in are coming in much earlier,” he said.

Money & Influence 04.5.2021

Bloomberg: Trump Keeps History at Bay by Putting Off Presidential Library

He told supporters before he left office in January that he wanted to raise $2 billion for a presidential library, according to the Washington Post, which would be the most ever. The most likely vehicle would be a nonprofit charity, the model used by modern presidents, because donations are tax deductible and the entity doesn’t have to pay tax on the money it raises, said Paul Seamus Ryan of the government-accountability group Common Cause. He could legally accept money in unlimited amounts from sources including foreign countries, and disclosure of the donors’ identities isn’t required except by registered lobbyists who give $200 or more.  Yet such a charity requires that expenditures are used for the public good and not for private benefit of individuals, Ryan said, and Trump has faced questions before about his use of charity funds.

Voting & Elections 04.4.2021

HuffPost: John Lewis’s Final Fight For Voting Rights

“It’s absolutely the case that his legacy lives on here,” said Stephen Spaulding, senior counsel for public policy at Common Cause, a nonpartisan nonprofit backing the For the People Act. “I just remember it being a very iterative process by which they worked very closely with outside groups to craft the most robust bill,” Spaulding, who was involved in the roundtable discussions, said. “Mr. Lewis was very involved in the details, as was his staff.”

Voting & Elections 04.2.2021

The Independent: Coca-Cola condemned Georgia’s voting law, but why did companies act after the bill was passed?

“I think it’s somewhat irresponsible of them to come out after a law has passed,” said Aunna Dennis, executive director of Common Cause Georgia, a voting rights group. “There’s still opportunity for some things to change. We are obviously going to court. We filed a case with our coalition partners and other legal teams to really combat this. So we still need that added pressure from corporations in Georgia to take this stand against these suppressive tactics.”

Salon: Texas GOP moves to “gerrymander” state courts after Democrats sweep key judicial elections

"This is 100% partisan driven," Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of the voter advocacy group Common Cause Texas said in an interview with Salon. "The political party they don't like is winning too many districts, so they just want to change them so that can no longer happen," Gutierrez testified at Thursday's hearing. "They went out of their way to really innovate gerrymandering in Texas, which is hard to do but they figured out a way. But this is one that I feel harms so many different communities," Gutierrez said, predicting that the impact on traditionally Republican areas of the state could doom the bill in committee.

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