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

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

$2 BILLION and Counting: Outside Groups Tried to Buy the 2022 Midterm Elections

Most Americans are breathing a sigh of relief this week. With election day in the rear-view mirror, they’re thankful that the deluge of political advertising will finally end. Of course, for those places where run-off elections will be held, the deluge will probably intensify (sorry, Georgia). Federal campaign spending this cycle approached $10 billion (with… Read more

Citizen Spotlight: Rick Hubbard is Walking across America to Fix Our Democracy

This month, we’re spotlighting Rick Hubbard, who is walking across America to help inspire us to fix our broken democracy. Rick is a Vermont native and former national board member of Common Cause who previously walked with Granny D and has long advocated for ending the corrupting influence of big money in politics. Rick’s walk… Read more

Democracy, Can You Spare 44 Billion Dimes?

Since the Supreme Court’s notorious Citizens United ruling, outside groups have spent more than $4.4 billion – including more than $1 billion in untraceable “dark money” – influencing federal elections. That’s 44 billion dimes. Those figures, compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics and outlined in a recent Guardian article, demonstrate the disproportionate and corrupting… Read more

Florida’s Dark Money Dark Horse

In America’s two-party system, the presence of third-party candidates is often met with mixed responses. Often, when a third-party candidate with a similar platform to a major-party candidate enters a race, they cause division among voters, resulting in a win for the opposition. Case in point: Ralph Nader in the 2000 presidential election, or Eliot… Read more

THE DEMOCRACY REBELLION: Coming to PBS in January

Americans may be divided over impeachment and the next election but they are united on one thing – strong majorities of Democrats, Independents and Republicans want political reforms that will restore a government that works for average Americans and not wealthy special interests. Polls confirm that, but what many Americans don’t know is that citizen… Read more

Dark Money Fuels State Supreme Court Races

Are state Supreme Courts really nonpartisan? With dark money in the mix, it’s questionable. A study conducted by the Brennan Center for Justice and the National Institute on Money in Politics found that special interest spending accounted for 27 percent of all Supreme Court election spending last year, down from 40 percent in 2016. In… Read more