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 [...]
Republicans in the US House, with support from Rep. Heath Shuler (D-NC) and few other Democrats, gleefully stabbed the presidential public financing system in the heart, draining its funds for other purposes. Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) was the only Republican in the US House to agree that the program is broken but insist that it [...]
A new edition of Democracy NC's brochure featuring quotes and photographs of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is now available. It includes information about the upcoming H K on J assembly in Raleigh, the redistricting process affecting local and state political districts, the controversial proposal to require a photo ID for voting, and Dr. King's challenge [...]
For better or worse, a gaggle of “firsts” this year will have a lasting impact on North Carolina politics. Here’s the Top 10 list from Democracy North Carolina. Happy New Year!!
The end of 2010 marks the eighth year that North Carolina’s voluntary public campaign financing program for statewide judicial candidates has been in effect – long enough for it to be used or rejected in the staggered election cycles that have now involved all 22 seats on the state’s Supreme Court and Court of Appeals. [...]
Our friend Gene Nichol at UNC Law School has an op-ed column in today’s News & Observer that not only says democracy is under attack by the money-is-speech ideologues on the US Supreme Court; his words (contrary to his everyday deeds) could even lead you to think it’s time to declare total defeat. Indeed, there is [...]
While partisan opponents of “Voter-Owned Elections” will control the NC General Assembly next year, other parts of the nation will experience new advances for public campaign financing. West Virginia reformers held an event this week to celebrate that state’s new pilot program for Supreme Court elections, and Maine reformers threw a 10th birthday party yesterday [...]
The good folks at NC Policy Watch have put together a baker’s dozen of targets the new Republican majority aims to destroy when they take their seats in the 2011 NC General Assembly. At the top of the hit list is Fair Elections. The goal of the new majority is apparently to gut public campaign financing [...]
The New York Times blows a hole in the myth that the US Chamber of Commerce represents hundreds of thousands of Main Street businesses across America; in fact, only a handful of big corporations are bankrolling the lobby group and its gigantic electioneering operation. NYT researchers pierced the secrecy around the Chamber’s donors, at least [...]
The NC Voters from Clean Elections coalition released its 2010 scorecard that evaluates the support of state legislators for “voter-owned” public financing and related campaign reform measures. NCVCE points out that more legislators received perfect scores in 2010 than in previous reports. Meanwhile, three more judicial candidates have demonstrated enough public support to qualify for [...]