The Washington Post Fighting big money with big money By E.J. Dionne Jr. If you are tired of seeing the debate on guns dominated by the National Rifle Association and yearn for sensible weapons laws, you have to love New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. When most politicians were caving in or falling silent, there was …
Read More →The Los Angeles Times Election is over, but ‘super PACs’ remain a threat Influence by corporations and the wealthy still counts for a lot in our electoral process, and it’s only going to count for more. Citizens United still needs an antidote. Michael Hiltzik December 9, 2012 Just as the devil’s finest trick is persuading …
Read More →Bloomberg News Big Money Still Had Destructive Role in 2012 Elections By Albert R. Hunt December 9, 2012 The fears that big money would corrupt the political process in 2012 weren’t realized, the conventional wisdom says. The fat cats, unshackled by U.S. Supreme Court and lower court decisions, weren’t able to buy the presidency or …
Read More →The Washington Post Hidden campaign cash By Editorial Board December 6, 2012 THE CAMPAIGN is over, but the broken campaign finance system remains. The flood of money into politics in the past two years, including millions of dollars from hidden donors, was unlike anything since the post-Watergate reforms of the 1970s and will only grow …
Read More →Roll Call On Rudman and the Future of Campaign Finance Norman Ornstein December 5, 2012 First, a word about Sen. Warren B. Rudman. In 1985, when Gramm-Rudman-Hollings was enacted as a way to bring fiscal balance, I was quoted in a U.S. News & World Report story expressing skepticism about its impact; I suggested that …
Read More →The New York Times A Broken Election System Editorial Board November 21, 2012 While President Obama was delivering his victory speech in the early hours of Wednesday, Nov. 7, people were still standing in line in Florida to vote. Thousands had waited hours to vote in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, some in the cold, …
Read More →The Washington Post Awash in cash (cont’d) By Editorial Board November 18, 2012 THE 2012 ELECTION featured, as always, a record amount of spending. It featured, as always but in a far bigger increment than the usual increase, a record amount of spending by outside groups. With new avenues for unlimited contributions unleashed by the …
Read More →Philadelphia Inquirer Put limits on campaign cash Editorial Board September 27, 2012 Congress failed to take up the unfettered money that has reached scandalous proportions in this election cycle before recessing to get on the campaign trail. But a bill has been introduced that could provide an alternative to politicians’ dependency on the huge amounts …
Read More →The New York Times Blog For Political Closure, We Need Disclosure By Warren Rudman and Chuck Hagel July 16, 2012 Since the beginning of the current election cycle, extremely wealthy individuals, corporations and trade unions — all of them determined to influence who is in the White House next year — have spent more than …
Read More →The New York Times The Power of Anonymity July 17, 2012 Two years ago, Congress came within a single Republican vote in the Senate of following the Supreme Court’s advice to require broad disclosure of campaign finance donors. The justices wanted voters to be able to decide for themselves “whether elected officials are ‘in the …
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