In a letter sent today to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), Democracy 21, joined by the Campaign Legal Center, forwarded fifteen letters that the watchdog groups had sent to the IRS beginning in October 2010 urging IRS action against groups improperly claiming 501(c)(4) tax status and calling for a rulemaking proceeding. The …
Read More →In a letter sent to Senators and Representatives today, reform groups called on Congress to investigate and address both of the scandals at the IRS in order to prevent the same abuses from occurring in the future. As Congress rightly investigates the improper targeting of conservative groups, the letter also stated that Members have a …
Read More →POLITICO Inadequate IRS rules helped create scandal By Fred Wertheimer The current firestorm over the wrongful targeting of conservative groups by the Internal Revenue Service is one part of a picture that shows the existing rules to determine the eligibility of groups to qualify as section 501(c)(4) tax-exempt “social welfare” organizations are woefully inadequate. The …
Read More →CBS News Is IRS missing a bigger tax-exempt scandal? By: Wyatt Andrews
Read More →The Washington Post’s Wonkblog ‘Crossroads GPS and Priorities USA were created for the purpose of hiding donors’ By Dylan Matthews Fred Wertheimer is the founder and president of Democracy 21, a leading campaign finance reform organization. He worked for Common Cause for 24 years, serving as a lobbyist for the Watergate reforms and as a …
Read More →The IRS was dead wrong to target conservative groups claiming tax-exempt status as section 501(c)(4) “social welfare” organizations based on their names and identified interests. This never should have happened and steps should be taken to ensure it does not happen again. At the same time, however, it is clear that a number of groups …
Read More →In a letter sent today, reform groups urged Senators and Representatives “to pass campaign finance disclosure legislation this year to close the gaping disclosure loopholes in the campaign finance laws. These loopholes resulted in more than $300 million in secret contributions being spent by outside groups to influence the 2012 presidential and congressional elections.” The …
Read More →In a letter sent to President Obama yesterday, reform groups expressed their “deep concern about the nation’s corrupt campaign finance system and about your failure, to date, as President to provide meaningful leadership or take effective action to solve this fundamental problem facing our democracy.” The reform groups included: Americans for Campaign Reform, the Campaign …
Read More →The introduction of campaign finance disclosure legislation yesterday by Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) is an important step forward. The bill represents a breakthrough as the first bipartisan legislation introduced in the Senate to address the problem of secret money being spent by outside groups to influence federal elections. Democracy 21 commends …
Read More →POLITICO Op-ed The Right Kind of Reform Fred Wertheimer The indictments last week of a New York state senator and five other New York politicians in an alleged bribery scandal once again focused the public spotlight on the dangers of influence money in the political system. And as the late Sen. Russell Long of Louisiana …
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