Big Money Is Responsible for Our Dysfunctional Democracy

Special interests – from Big Oil, to the Military-Industrial Complex, to tech giants like Amazon – want what’s best for them, and not for workers, communities, or the planet. And they know how to get it by spending big money to buy influence. As a result, Congress supports hawkish military policies, a business environment that… Read more

Big Money Is Trying to Buy Our Democracy Behind the Scenes

We talk a lot about how Big Money tries to influence our government through campaign contributions, independent expenditures, and unaccountable dark money spending. Usually, we think of how corporate interests spend on legislative and executive elections to benefit their bottom line. But we cannot ignore some of the subtler ways Big Money is undermining our… Read more

Oil & Gas Industry Spent Millions Lobbying Congress to Increase Record Profits

What’s more frustrating than the oil and gas industry raking in record profits at the expense of consumers and the environment? Learning that they spent $124.4 million lobbying the federal government in 2022 for favorable legislation and regulations, and knowing that their spending has tangible results. A new report from Open Secrets found that the… Read more

The Unlucky 13th Anniversary of Citizens United

January 21 will mark 13 years since the Supreme Court made its ill-fated Citizens United ruling, which allowed special interests to wield more influence than ever before on our political system. From 2010 through 2021, more than $4.4 billion in outside money was spent on federal elections alone (more than $1 billion of that was… Read more

Big Money, January 6, and the Future of Democracy

If you’ve been following the coverage of the January 6 hearings, you might have noticed a troubling connection: big money and brazen efforts to undermine our democratic elections. The Supreme Court’s misguided 1976 ruling in Buckley v. Valeo established that the federal government could not restrict independent political expenditures. By essentially decreeing that “money =… Read more

Daring Gyrocopter Pilot Doug Hughes Tells All

Doug Hughes isn’t a name familiar to most. A mild-mannered postal worker from Florida, Hughes delivered mail for 13 years without drawing much attention. That changed on April 15, 2015, when Doug Hughes flew a gyrocopter 70 miles and landed on the U.S. Capitol’s West Lawn, whereafter Capitol Police shortly arrested him. But he live-streamed… Read more

VICTORY: House Passes For The People Act

BREAKING NEWS: Last night, in a vote of 220-210, the House passed the For The People Act (H.R. 1), bringing us one step closer to getting big money OUT of our politics and voters IN! But we’re not done yet. H.R. 1 is now on its way to the Senate for a vote. Call your… Read more

2020 Election Most Expensive in History

In a year of spectacular firsts, America outdid itself again in the realm of campaign finance. Spending in the 2020 election reached $14.4 billion, more than doubling the record set in 2016. According to OpenSecrets, a number of additional records comprise this whopping $14.4 billion total: President Biden’s campaign became the first presidential campaign to… Read more

It’s Not Over Yet: House Re-Introduces the For The People Act

A new session of Congress kicked off with the introduction of For The People Act (H.R.1), a landmark bill designed to fix our broken political system, including campaign finance, voting rights, and public accountability. The bill was introduced on January 4th by Rep. John Sarbanes of Maryland and co-sponsored by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and… Read more