Link-of-the-Day Category
Democracy North Carolina’s Executive Director Bob Hall periodically posts commentary and links of interest about one of our core issue areas. Review his posts below or click here to automatically subscribe to our Link-of-The-Day feed via email and other options.
You are welcome to submit comments to this moderated blog. Please treat others with respect, avoid partisan rhetoric, and help us provide a fact-based discussion of issues related to North Carolina’s political landscape. Thank you.
Thursday, April 12th, 2012
A group of well-heeled New Yorkers are pushing the governor and legislators in that state to adopt a comprehensive public campaign financing program that parallels the successful one used in New York City’s elections. The group includes hefty political donors affiliated with both major parties. According to the New York Times, “Coalition leaders said they were prepared to spend more than $1 million promoting public financing, but they acknowledged that it could take beyond this legislative session to persuade lawmakers to embrace their proposal.” Meanwhile, a different kind of effort is underway nationally to convince political donors to divert most of their campaign contributions toward nonprofit charities. The donors would pair up across party lines and offset each other contributions, with the money going to the charity rather than the candidate. Sound far-fetched? Read the full report in the Washington Post.
Posted in Link-of-the-Day, Money in Politics, Voter-Owned Elections | Comments Off on LOD: Contributing to Reform
Tuesday, April 10th, 2012
The Charlotte Observer uses research from Democracy North Carolina for an analysis of Duke Energy’s political clout, which would grow even larger after the proposed merger with Progress Energy. “We are not apologetic about what we do in state capitals and Washington,” said Duke spokesperson Tom Williams. “We are a large player and we serve a lot of people. . . . We clearly would be very large and active players in the policy arenas in those six states (Duke and Progress serve) and Washington. Our bottom line is influenced by political policies, and we certainly offer our opinions.” In another profile of mega-donors, CBS News looks at the contributors to Super PACs through the examples of Julian Robertson, the North Carolina native and hedge fund founder who is a major donor to Mitt Romney, and Jeffrey Katzenberg, Hollywood producer and patron of Barack Obama.
Posted in Citizens United Case, Link-of-the-Day, Lobbying, Money in Politics, Pay to Play | Comments Off on LOD: Mega-Donor Profiles
Friday, April 6th, 2012
In this hour-long production, the radio documentary “This American Life” manages to get Washington politicians and lobbyists saying the worst things possible about themselves, political corruption and the all-consuming money chase. Amazing! Who needs more evidence of the need for fundamental change? It begins with the tape of a shakedown fundraising call from a member of Congress to a developer, proceeds with similar candor through a dozen interviews, and ends with Sen. John McCain’s comments about the Supreme Court’s sarcasm and stupidity in the Citizens United case.
Posted in Citizens United Case, Ethics, Link-of-the-Day, Lobbying, Money in Politics, Pay to Play | Comments Off on LOD: From the Horse’s Mouth
Thursday, April 5th, 2012
The protection money that Big Oil doles out to politicians has paid off again in Washington. A solid majority of Americans want to end tax breaks worth over $4 billion a year for oil companies, but 43 Republicans and 4 Democrats blocked a crucial vote in US Senate last week, so the windfall continues. An analysis by Think Progress shows that Big Oil’s supporters received nearly four times the campaign donations of those standing for responsible fiscal policy. Since January 2005, US Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) has received $234,800 from oil and gas industry donors, while Sen. Kay Hagan took in $17,550. Hagan voted to end the tax subsidy, Burr voted to keep it. The New Yorker has a long story (“Gusher”) about the recent history of ExxonMobil’s remarkable political clout, but at the moment only an abstract is accessible. For details about the oil industry’s subsidies and more, see this article from OMB Watch.
Posted in Environmental Issues, Link-of-the-Day, Money in Politics, Pay to Play | Comments Off on LOD: Oily Protection Money
Monday, April 2nd, 2012
Want to know where you can go to vote early for the NC primary election, beginning on April 19 – or see who will be on your ballot? The State Board of Elections has just posted the times and locations of Early Voting sites for all 100 counties. All counties have at least one site open on weekdays from April 19 to May 4 and on Saturday, May 5, until 1 PM. Some have sites open on other Saturdays, some on a Sunday, some on college campuses. Click here and then click on the rectangle box that says “One-stop voting locations in your county.” You can also register to vote or update your registration at these sites, using Same-Day Registration. If you’re registered and want to vote by mail, you can request an absentee ballot by following the instructions at the NCElectionConnection.com site. Finally, use that site for instructions about how to preview your own ballot with your choices for the primary. Because of all the changes in district lines, it is especially important to preview your ballot for this election. Then, if you are presented with a different ballot at the polling place, please let the poll workers know immediately AND also report the problem to our Election Hotline so we can determine the scope of problems occurring throughout 2012: call the Hotline toll-free at 888-OUR-VOTE.
Posted in Civic Engagement, Get Out the Vote, Link-of-the-Day, Voting Rights | Comments Off on LOD: Your Early Voting Sites
Friday, March 30th, 2012
VIDEO: Former Marine Tim Thompson is nervous about his first protest, but nevertheless confronts elections officials in Tennessee on Super Tuesday and refuses to show the required picture ID in order to vote. He has the proper ID, but sacrifices his ability to vote on behalf of thousands of low-income, older, and college-age citizens whose right to vote Thompson fought to protect as a Marine. He’s mad and tells a forceful story to his brother-in-law, filmmaker David Earnhardt, producer of “Uncounted.” For a status report about voter suppression legislation in North Carolina, click here for a one-page factsheet from Democracy North Carolina.
Posted in Civic Engagement, Link-of-the-Day, Voting Rights, Youth Vote | Comments Off on LOD: A Fighter for You
Wednesday, March 28th, 2012
Maybe you’ve heard about the State Integrity Investigation that scored each state on the strength of its laws and practices governing campaign finances, lobbying regulations, ethics, access to government records, redistricting, etc. Overall, North Carolina earned a C- and ranked 18th best among the 50 states, but in some areas it scored an A, in others an F. Here’s a link to the narrative and detailed tables about North Carolina. NC project coordinator Adam Hochberg begins the narrative with a story: “When an influential North Carolina lawmaker named Stephen LaRoque helped sponsor and pass a 2011 bill loosening regulations on billboards, he was the co-owner of five billboards and president of a firm that owned four others. But when LaRoque asked the North Carolina Ethics Commission to review his key legislative role, it found no conflict, citing what it called a “safe harbor” stemming from the fact that his law would benefit everyone owning billboards. The case reflected what many analysts say is the prevailing state of North Carolina’s ethics regulations: A lengthy set of rules has been enacted to help keep public officials honest, but enforcement has sometimes not been strict. They also complain that the extensive rules haven’t adequately curbed the influence of monied interests on state policymaking.”
Posted in Disclosure, Ethics, Link-of-the-Day, Lobbying, Money in Politics, Redistricting | 1 Comment »
Monday, March 26th, 2012
The gun lobby nurtures fear to make money and increases its profits through a partnership with the American Legislative Exchange Council, writes Paul Krugman of the New York Times. Florida’s radical version of ALEC’s boilerplate Castle Doctrine legislation cost young Trayvon Martin his life, but it is paying off for gun makers, gun dealers, the National Rifle Association, and their lobbyists – and the NRA/ALEC alliance continues to push the Florida model in other states. Public Campaign traces the impact of NRA’s political donations in Florida. “We need a political system that listens to families like Trayvon Martin’s and not the wealthy special interests,” says David Donnelly of the Public Campaign Action Fund. The gun lobby succeeded in pushing through a less extreme version of the Castle Doctrine in North Carolina last year – less extreme but still dangerous and deadly. Despite claims that the NC law has effective safeguards, we’re doomed to witness its harsh consequences on life, liberty and, says Krugman, “our society — and our democracy.”
Posted in Link-of-the-Day, Lobbying, Money in Politics, Pay to Play | Comments Off on LOD: Guns, Money and ALEC
Thursday, March 22nd, 2012
Despite promises of cleaning up what it called a “pay-to-play culture in Raleigh,” the new leadership in the General Assembly has done nothing to strengthen ethics or campaign finance laws. It hasn’t even enacted stronger disclosure laws to help the public’s right to know how money flows through the political system. Instead, as the Independent Weekly details, the Republican leadership in the NC House now appears to embrace a quid pro quo approach to passing legislation – campaign money is being traded for favorable public policy. Keep your eye on what happens next with proposed legislation to gut North Carolina’s regulation of chemicals pumped into the air by utilities, manufacturers and others. Will the millions invested in NC politics by the toxics lobby overcome our current public health standards? The NC Coastal Federation has a two-part profile (part one, part two) of what’s at stake, who’s involved, and why you should care about the outcome of a General Assembly committee considering this legislation today.
Posted in Disclosure, Environmental Issues, Ethics, Link-of-the-Day, Lobbying, Money in Politics, Pay to Play | Comments Off on LOD: Toxic Mix in Raleigh
Wednesday, March 21st, 2012
A new report by the National Institute on Money in State Politics examines the money behind the telecommunications industry’s recent success in passing legislation to restrict local governments from building broadband networks that hooked local businesses and residents to the Internet, even in areas long ignored by the private providers. According to the report, “The state’s two biggest cable providers, Time Warner Cable and CenturyLink, along with the North Carolina Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCCTA), aggressively lobbied for the bill and were prominent campaign donors. . . . Republican lawmakers and those who held key leadership positions, sponsored the bill, and/or who voted in favor of the bill received considerably more campaign contributions from the telecommunication donors than did their colleagues. For example, lawmakers who voted in favor of HB 129 received on average 76 percent more than the average received by those who voted against the bill. The four primary sponsors of the bill received an average of $9,438 each, more than double the $3,658 given on average to lawmakers who did not sponsor the bill.”
Posted in Ethics, Link-of-the-Day, Lobbying, Money in Politics, Pay to Play | Comments Off on LOD: Broadband Bandits
Monday, March 19th, 2012
Last week brought a flurry of reporting about the moral decay of America’s economic and political culture; the politics of greed is at the heart of the problem and the right target for the Occupy Movement and others. Somewhere in the 1980s, thanks to leadership at the top ranks of business and government, the transition accelerated from John F. Kennedy’s “ask not what your country can do for you” to the current mantra of “what’s in it for me.” As Robert Reich knows well, immorality started at the top and trickled down. He writes, “There is moral rot in America but it’s not found in the private behavior of ordinary people. It’s located in the public behavior of people who control our economy and are turning our democracy into a financial slush pump. It’s found in Wall Street fraud, exorbitant pay of top executives, financial conflicts of interest, insider trading, and the outright bribery of public officials through unlimited campaign donations.” Reich wants to focus for the moment on Republican co-conspirators of this sick selfishism, but a fuller analysis would bring in many Democrats as well; the politics of greed is now taken for granted as the way things are, the way to survive and prosper. An insider at Goldman Sachs wrote a revealing op-ed attacking his “morally bankrupt” company as he resigned last week. For a horrific tale of corporate greed and corruption closer to home, read Rolling Stone’s cover story about Charlotte-based Bank of America, “a bank too crooked to fail.” Writes Matt Taibbi: “The threat posed by Bank of America isn’t just financial – it’s a full-blown assault on the American dream. Where’s the incentive to play fair and do well, when what we see rewarded at the highest levels of society is failure, stupidity, incompetence and meanness?” No wonder people will call this the decade of madness.
Posted in Civic Engagement, Ethics, Link-of-the-Day, Money in Politics, Pay to Play | Comments Off on LOD: Trickle-Down Immorality
Tuesday, March 13th, 2012
The Obama Justice Department on Monday blocked implementation of the voter ID law adopted in Texas, using a similar rationale to their objection to the version passed in South Carolina: Research shows that people of color will be much more heavily impacted than whites by the state’s new restriction. The Charlotte Observer’s editorial praises the action and notes that the same problem with racially biased disenfranchisement would occur with the simple-minded proposal adopted by the NC General Assembly but vetoed by Gov. Bev Perdue. Also on Monday, a judge ruled that Wisconsin’s ID law violates the state constitution’s clear prohibition against the legislature adding new qualifications to voting; North Carolina’s constitution has similar language that will be used to challenge the voter ID bill, if it ever becomes law here.
Posted in Link-of-the-Day, Voting Rights | Comments Off on LOD: Judicial Restraint
Monday, March 12th, 2012
The Center for Responsive Politics follows the “Shadow Money Trail” through the annual reports of foundations and business associations in order to uncover some of the millions spent by the Koch-Pope-Americans for Prosperity network for political advertising – but the source of most of the money remains hidden. What can be done? Even New Bern’s arch-conservative Sun Journal says Congress should pass much tougher disclosure requirements. More sunshine on the flow of money should be required by our General Assembly, too, despite the bad example set by House Speaker Thom Tillis. The Center for Responsive Politics’ posting also provides an update on another way to hold secretive conduits accountable: make the IRS stop giving tax breaks to 501(c)(4) and other entities that launder election donations.
Posted in Citizens United Case, Disclosure, Link-of-the-Day, Money in Politics | Comments Off on LOD: More Sunshine, Please
Wednesday, March 7th, 2012
Advocates for requiring photo ID checks at the polls may delight in a news story breaking in Statesville, where a city council member is charged with voter fraud along with his sister and two of her family members. But all these voters cast ballots in their own names; requiring them to flash a photo document with their name would not have prevented the alleged cheating. So rather than help the ID advocates’ cause, this is another case that highlights how the proposed H-351 will not really address fraud. As editorials this week in Southern Pines and Winston-Salem newspapers make plain, the bill’s claim to “restore confidence in government” is bogus; it’s really about excluding honest people who the reigning political party doesn’t want to vote. Ironically, as a column about House Speaker Thom Tillis points out, his cozy relations with predatory lenders shows he has his own problems with accurate ID information and inspiring confidence in government. Should he, or the lenders, be investigated?
Posted in Civic Engagement, Disclosure, Ethics, Link-of-the-Day, Money in Politics, Pay to Play, Voting Rights | Comments Off on LOD: Fraud Claims
Friday, March 2nd, 2012
The impact of last year’s crop of voter suppression laws is showing up in various states in bizarre and disastrous ways. The Colbert Report profiles a Florida teacher charged with voter fraud for registering her students and failing to get the forms to the elections agency within 48 hours instead of the old 10-day deadline. Legislatures across the nation are back in session, debating a new round of wacko bills that should shame any real patriot. The extremist measures would be more laughable if they weren’t so frightening. In North Carolina, Rep. Stephen LaRoque of Kinston is pledging to introduce a bill, when the General Assembly convenes in May, that would give his county government authority to impose a photo ID restriction on local voters; such legislation would very likely be unconstitutional, but that doesn’t bother LaRoque who says the bill is needed to “prevent potential fraud.” He seems to miss the irony of fighting “corruption” while he is the target of corruption investigations. He also wants to prohibit the Kinston city council from having council members elected from districts; he doesn’t like who’s been winning. The Brennan Center for Justice has a new electronic newsletter that surveys the status of voter suppression initiatives state by state, as well as new reports on aspects of voter registration, election administration, and more.
Posted in Civic Engagement, Link-of-the-Day, Voting Rights, Youth Vote | Comments Off on LOD: Laughable Madness
