In Congress today, a House committee passed the Fair Elections Now Act, an historic achievement for the public campaign movement; however, it is unclear if the bill will be taken up on the floor before the House recesses in a few weeks for election campaigning. Meanwhile, by a vote of 59-39, Senate Democrats failed to [...]
The Fair Elections Now Act (which would provide Congressional candidates with a public campaign financing option) is slated for its first historic vote next week. The Committee on House Administration will “mark up” the bill on September 23 and hopefully vote to move it forward on its journey through Congress. The New York Times, many [...]
Want to get a picture of how big money in politics is crushing real people? Watch this short video from Brave New Foundation about a farmer in Iowa, oyster harvester in Louisiana and coal miner in West Virginia. (Explore the Fair Elections website for more Good Stuff.) The message is clear: people suffer when wealthy [...]
J. Art Pope, the rightwing sugar daddy for the John Locke Foundation and big donor to Americans for Prosperity, is using a 527 committee to funnel his corporation’s money into political ads aimed at discrediting Democratic candidates for the NC General Assembly in this fall’s election. Pope has done this before with six-figure donations from [...]
I know I'm not the only one who will be addressing my disappointment with the outcome of the Ethics bill. This is the first time I have experienced the side of politics that makes me feel completely defeated. Robert's outlook is that this is the job and we'll go back at it next year and [...]
This week in the wonderful world of organizing we attended Lobby Day in Raleigh at the General Assembly. It was a day of good experiences and disappointments. The morning started off bright and super early. I met the Washington group in the parking lot of Wal-mart at 6:30 am and we headed to Greenville to [...]
To say this week was a little bit crazy would be an understatement. Stating of on Monday, Joyce and I met for breakfast with Washington Council-member William Pitt to discuss Washington's economic development and how politics run in Washington. Joyce and I were also given a grand tour of Washington, which Joyce didn't really need considering [...]
This past week felt something like a test of faith in one's cause in the face of biblical disaster. Every day brought another unexpected blow to our efforts both current and future. It's a bitter moment when one realizes that the money-and-power-mongers of this world can swiftly exact a devastating attack against the causes of [...]
It is easy to get discouraged when things don't the way we planned them. Especially if the plan one has is for the greater good of the people. Lobby day had everybody pumped. It was really great to see everybody and catch up a bit. None of us had any idea that things would turn [...]
This week’s highlight was attending our Lobby Day on Tuesday at the General Assembly in Raleigh. All day Monday we made last-minute phone calls to our confirmed attendees and rented a 12 passenger van to make the trip. We also put together information packets with bill descriptions, factsheets about Voter-Owned Elections, and the day’s agenda. [...]