The American Legislative Exchange Council brings together corporations (from Koch Industries to Coca-Cola), conservative state legislators, and rightwing think tanks to fabricate model bills that advance their common interests: reduce government regulation and taxes; increase the transfer of wealth from average Americans to the super rich. ALEC working groups, research memos and draft bills push [...]
Join Democracy North Carolina and others on Wednesday, July 13, in Raleigh at the Respect Our Vote Rally. Good speakers, good friends, good cause, and a good time to say No to partisan attacks on your voting rights. In addition to scheming to override Gov. Perdue’s veto of the photo ID bill, conservative lawmakers will [...]
In contrast to incentives for small donors (per Wednesday’s Link of the Day), the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision encourages limitless donations by corporations (and unions) for so-called independent expenditures. Texas Gov. Rick Perry is the latest candidate to benefit from this subterfuge, with the creation of a super PAC called “Americans for Rick Perry” that [...]
The recent Supreme Court decision knocking down rescue funds is pushing advocates of public campaign financing to look at alternative models that meet many of the goals of the Voter-Owned or Clean Elections approach. In a new report, the Campaign Finance Institute has applied its favorite model to state legislative elections in six Midwestern states. [...]
The NC FreeEnterprise Foundation, a conservative business association, provides another view of the new Congressional districts proposed by Republicans. It says “the maps heavily favor the election of a solid majority Republican contingent to the U.S. House of Representatives from North Carolina in 2012, if the maps are approved and implemented ‘as is.’” And it [...]
Republican leaders today released their proposed map of North Carolina’s 13 Congressional districts for the 2012-2020 elections. As expected, they erased nearly all the advantages Democrats drew for themselves when they had control of the crayons. Political observer John Davis produced a detailed analysis of the Republicans “smart mapping,” concluding that the GOP will have [...]
When the US Supreme Court liberated purchased political speech from nearly all regulation in the Citizens United decision, it opened a Pandora’s Box loaded with all sorts of strange creatures: partisan c-4s, super PACs, corporate slush funds. The Federal Election Commission is struggling to apply its rules to new creatures served up by operatives across [...]
While the NC General Assembly is on a 24-day recess, House Republicans are taking quick advantage of a loophole in state law to sponsor a major fundraising event this Wednesday and solicit contributions of up to $5,000 from PACs that are barred from giving while the General Assembly is in session. The event looks like [...]
The US Supreme Court issued its expected 5-to-4 rejection of the matching or rescue funds provision in Arizona’s public campaign financing program. Some worried that the activist justices would overreach (as they did in the Citizens United decision) and find some means to outlaw public financing altogether. That didn’t happen; maybe the public’s outrage over [...]
Governor Bev Perdue stepped up to defend the voters of North Carolina today by vetoing H-351; that’s the Republican bill to require voters to show a government-issued photo ID each time they vote. For decades, North Carolina has been in the bottom third of the 50 states for voter turnout, often among the worse 10 [...]