News Clips

In recent weeks, President Trump ran an ad on Facebook with discredited allegations about former Vice President Joe Biden's relationship with Ukraine. Despite requests from Biden's campaign to take down the ad, Facebook refused, stating the ad didn't violate its policies on political advertising. Facebook's new policy exempts politicians' political ads from third-party fact-checkers. The exemption effectively allows any politician to run ads on the platform that contain deceptive, false or misleading information. Given the president's propensity to lie, it's easy to understand why many are calling this the "Trump exemption."

Technological advances aside, early voter turnout will depend on whether people know that the option now exists in New York. Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York, which has been leading efforts to raise awareness, said that educating a public long accustomed to “16 hours, on the first Tuesday in November” had been a challenge. “Some people are very aware of it,” she said. For others, Ms. Lerner added, “this is absolutely news to them.”

But to really grasp the impact that gerrymandering has had on abortion laws, you have to look back to 2010, said Dan Vicuña, the national redistricting manager at voting rights watchdog group Common Cause. That election year, Republicans set out to win control of as many statehouses as possible, which gave them power to redraw state and congressional districts after the census. “That effort succeeded beyond their wildest dreams,” Vicuña said. “Republicans took over tons of state legislatures, and they were interested in gerrymandering.” Since then, he said, it’s no surprise that the number of abortion bans passed at the state level has exploded.

John M. Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island, emphasized that, “The Constitution is crystal clear that the census is to count every resident of the United States, regardless of their citizenship status. Any attempt to discourage participation by non-citizens is an affront to that constitutional purpose.” “For Rhode Islanders, millions of dollars of federal money and political representation for their communities hang in the balance,” Marion said. “It is imperative we make sure every Rhode Islander participates in the census.”

Last year, Common Cause, the political reform group, asked the FEC to determine whether the Trump campaign had illegally coordinated with America First and America First Policies, a related group that can raise money without disclosing its donors. The complaint alleged that the president and his campaign were improperly soliciting contributions for the two entities.

The acting House Oversight Committee chair will be Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a New York City Democrat. It was unclear whether she will continue in that role, as others are expected to vie for the job. “There’s no clear ascendant” to the oversight chair, said Aaron Scherb, director of legislative affairs at Common Cause.