News Clips

On Wednesday, July 28 at 5 p.m., Spotlight PA’s Angela Couloumbis; Sam Janesch, Brad Bumsted, and Mike Wereschagin of The Caucus; and Khalif Ali, executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, participated in a free Q&A on state lawmaker expenses.

"There should be complete transparency. People should always know where your donations come from and exactly what the dollar amount is," Ali said.

“We know that nationally, about two-thirds of Americans believe that politicians ‘don’t care about people like me.’ This kind of revolving door employment reinforces that cynicism. A cooling-off period for former state legislators, before they take other state jobs, would reassure voters that public employees are working in the public’s interests,” Ali said.

“Pittsburgh and other cities, and counties, need to be more forward and be more aggressive at setting up their own campaign finance laws,” said Micah Sims, executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, a nonpartisan government accountability group.