Common Blog

Today, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced her plans to make the raw data behind California’s lobbyists and campaign finance database available, online, on one spreadsheet available to the public and updated daily. Secretary Bowen’s announcement is a reversal from a position she has long held since Common Cause began asking for this disclosure in 2011.

Nothing shines a light on problems quite like a scandal. If we’re lucky, it means that we take a closer look at not only the issue that makes the headlines, but the issue ecosystem. The recent back and forth about IRS incompetence regarding screening 501 (c)4 groups has prompted a secondary discussion about the very [...]

Submitted by: Corie Tanida, Project Coordinator, Common Cause Hawaii On Monday, May 13, 2013 Hawaii Public Radio and Common Cause Hawaii hosted a discussion group to review the 2013 legislative session, called The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.  It was also my first day on the job as Project Coordinator for Common Cause Hawaii. [...]

HB1303 will give Colorado citizens greater opportunity to participate in our elections by simplifying the process while maintaining full options for registration and voting.

A new report by Common Cause Massachusetts shows that limiting outside spending in last year’s U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts helped to increased electoral transparency, accountability, and fairness, and calls on the current Senate candidates Ed Markey and Gabriel Gomez to agree to limit outside spending in the current election. Since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC (2010) [...]