Congress, States Working to Get Big Money Out of Politic$

With allies Public Citizen, People for the American Way and more, CWA activists are pushing ahead on a Constitutional Amendment to repair the damage done by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United and McCutcheon decisions. Citizens United basically said corporations are people and threw out restrictions on their political spending. The McCutcheon decision went even further, enabling just one super-wealthy donor to contribute up to $5.9 million to candidates, campaigns and PACs. It’s “pay to play politics,” not democracy.

The Supreme Court may be confused about money and speech, but ordinary Americans aren’t. The Constitutional Amendment would restore the right of Congress and the states to regulate political spending and return our democratic process to the people – where it belongs.

The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee approved a Constitutional Amendment, (S.J. Res 19), introduced by Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) on June 18; next stop is a full Judiciary Committee hearing.

The Government by the People Act, introduced by House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and John Sarbanes (D-Md.), will change how we finance our elections by encouraging candidates to rely on a large number of small donations from their constituents back home, instead of funds from the 1 percent, corporations, super PACS, special interests, lobbyists and Wall Street. It would empower ordinary voters and hold members of Congress accountable to the people who put them in office, not the biggest bankroll.

The DISCLOSE Act will require that donors to political advertisements be clearly identified with those named in the ad, just like candidates for Congress are required to do in ads financed by their campaigns.

In the States California now requires non-profit groups that contribute secret or “dark money” to political campaigns to reveal their secret funders when they spend more than $50,000 in state campaigns in one year, or more than $100,000 over four consecutive years. The measure also requires committees that push for or against ballot measures to release a list of the top 10 contributors who gave $10,000 or more, if they raise at least $1 million.

New York State is closer to campaign finance reform, following this year’s state legislative session and work by CWAers and ally activists.

Sixteen states and more than 500 local governments have called on Congress to overturn Citizens United through ballot initiatives, resolutions or other measures, with strong public support for reform.