The posts in this category discuss our core issues.
With the blessing of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, the US Chamber of Commerce has become even more aggressive in spending corporate money on political ads to tilt elections in its favor. Now it turns out the Chamber hired a group of reconnaissance experts to develop a plan to spy on and disrupt its [...]
Local TV stations featured reports about today’s “Stop Photo ID: Respect My Vote” Lobby Day in Raleigh and other developments in the debate over requiring North Carolina voters to show an ID each time they vote. WRAL-TV’s coverage included an interview with Rep. Tim Moore (R-Cleveland County) who said Republicans plan to introduce a strict [...]
The Census Bureau has begun delivering detailed population data to public officials involved in redrawing political district lines to meet the Supreme Court’s mandate of “one person, one vote.” About a dozen states have their numbers and North Carolina’s turn is not far off. Democracy North Carolina and others will be monitoring how political lines [...]
What can be done about the unhealthy role of large private contributions in judicial elections? North Carolina led the nation by modifying the “clean elections” model of public financing to apply to judicial campaigns. In contrast to providing a positive alternative, New York is about to impose a new restriction on judges: you must not hear cases [...]
A Wall Street insider newsletter provides this useful profile of the wave of stockholder resolutions demanding that companies disclose their political spending, including their donations to trade associations (e.g., the US Chamber of Commerce) that shield a corporation's partisan activity from public scrutiny. Churches, pension fund managers, social investment funds and others are using their voting power [...]
The Public Campaign Action Fund has a new report out today that details the grip the energy industry has on members of the US House Committee on Energy & Commerce. The report arrives as the Energy & Power Subcommittee convenes to debate a Republican effort to weaken the Clean Air Act. It not only profiles the direct [...]
Robert Lee Caldwell of Morganton was indicted on Tuesday in connection with Bev Perdue’s 2008 gubernatorial campaign . The prosecutor, Colon Willoughby, said there’s no evidence suggesting that Perdue or her staff knew that Caldwell used an illegal contribution to pay for a campaign air flight. However, he also said, “I would not be surprised [...]
It’s amazing how easily lawmakers sent to the state capital this year to repair the economy get side-tracked with legislation designed to preserve their own power. New Hampshire legislators are taking the next step in the movement to weed out voters they consider unfriendly to their party. It’s an object lesson for where the North [...]
Three Democratic state Senate candidates (Don Davis, Margaret Dickson and Joe Sam Queen) are suing the NC Republican Party and their opponents in the 2010 election because allegedly (1) the party improperly used a media discount available to candidates to pay for multiple broadcast advertisements, and (2) the party violated the Stand By Your Ad [...]
The fate of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the single most effective law protecting the voting rights of minorities, could hinge on a case heard today in federal district court. Officials in Shelby County, Alabama, contend VRA’s Section 5 requirement is outdated and unconstitutional because it unfairly requires them to pre-clear with federal authorities all [...]