Josh Zaharoff in his blog posting on May 19 cautions that the news about Hans von Spakovsky "should not obscure the need for a fundamental overhaul of the FEC." He and Ed Davis refer to an article in Roll Call written by Meredith McGehee who calls for an overhaul to what she labels the "Failure to Enforce Commission."

Any closer to a functioning commission?
There has been a standoff in the Senate over nominees to the FEC because Republicans in the Senate (1) have refused to allow individual votes on the nominees despite the fact that the White House now accepts this offer from Senate Democrats (Reid firing back), and (2) had been pushing for the confirmation of controversial nominee Hans von Spakovsky (No to Hans).

Common Cause issued a press release and CC President Bob Edgar sent a letter to all members of the Senate on May 8 reiterating Common Cause's opposition to the nomination of Hans von Spakovsky and Donald McGhan and urging the Senators to vote against their confirmation. He expressed the hope that the Senate "would confirm a full slate of six commissioners who have demonstrated a respect for campaign finance law and their role as enforcers of that law."

Mr. Edgar proceeded to criticize the White House for refusing to renominate Chairman David Mason. Since this refusal follows upon the White House having twice proposed him for a seat on the commission, it smacks of retribution in response to the February letter Mr. Mason sent fellow Republican John McCain. In this letter Mr. Mason asserted that McCain's campaign needed FEC approval to opt out of the federal matching funds system during the primary election. He also pointed to a loan agreement Senator McCain signed that might automatically enter him into a binding agreement for matching funds.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC): Senate votes to rollback media ownership rules
In a near-unanimous voice vote late on May 15, the Senate passed a Resolution of Disapproval that would stop the FCC's new media cross-ownership rules from taking effect. The measure now moves to the House. Common Cause asks its members to contact their Representatives and urge them to support this Resolution.

Common Cause Partners with Mobilize.org
Common Cause is joining with Mobilize.org to sponsor the first Democracy 2.0 Entrepreneur Grant Summit for 2008. The first summit, Money in Politics, will take place in Denver, Colorado, on July 18-21, 2008, and focus on the impact that special interest-funded campaigns have on citizen-centered democracy. The summit will challenge the Millennial Generation (those under 30) to compete for grants to fund projects whose goals are to promote clean elections practices. The Common Cause and Mobilize.org partnership seeks to enable members of the Millennial Generation to move beyond deliberating about possible solutions and on to actually implementing their solutions. Ian Storrar, Director of Youth and Volunteer Programs for Common Cause, explains the importance of Democracy 2.0 and says, "This summit is an amazing collaboration to support young social entrepreneurs who want to redress the imbalance of special interest in the political process by putting citizens back at the center."

FISA: Compromise bill being pursued by White House and high-ranking House members
You will recall that the House of Representatives refused to pass the Senate version of  the FISA modernization bill which would have allowed for continued spying without warrants and granted telecommunications companies blanket immunity for having cooperated in these warrantless wiretaps.

A new FISA modernization bill may come before the House and Senate, and the White House and allies in Congress are negotiating behind closed doors for a "compromise" bill that would allow the government to spy without individualized warrants and also grant retroactive immunity to the Bush administration and the telecommunications companies.

CC President Bob Edgar forwarded this information from CREDO Mobile to CauseNet and asked members to take immediate action by contacting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and urging her to reject any compromises on illegal wiretapping.     

CC/CA: California Voters FIRST Initiative
On May 6 CCCA joined with other members of the broad and bipartisan collation supporting the California Voters FIRST Act to submit more than 1.2 million signatures to qualify the measure for the November 2008 ballot. CC Executive Director Kathay Feng said, "The diverse coaltion of people standing up to support this measure is a testament to the strength of this comprehensive and bipartisan approach to redistricting in California."

CC/CT: Not entirely a "Do Nothing" Session
The Connecticut Legislature ended its 2008 session early on May 8. Although it was generally dubbed a "Do Nothing" session, CCCT was successful in that the Legislature did pass one essential bill. CCCT and allies supported and lobbied for passage of Public Act No. 08-2, an act concerning the Citizens' Election Program. The bill sailed through both chambers in one day, and Governor M. Jody Rell signed it into law on April 7. During this legislative session, CCCT vigilantly checked every bill passed by the Legislature. They wanted to make sure a number of other bills aimed at turning back the clock on reform did not reach the Governor's desk. They found nothing that would chisel away at any hard-fought reforms.

CCCT expects that the National Popular Vote bill will fare better in 2009 with a new Speaker of the House. Despite having broad bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate, the 2008 Speaker of the House James Amann essentially killed it because he controlled the agenda.

CC/GA: Few New Faces in Legislature
CCGA noted that according to the Secretary of State's current list of candidates qualified for the General Primary Election ballot on July 15, 2008, Georgia's House and Senate will not look much different next year because of the number of incumbents who are running unopposed: 105 incumbents out of 180 House districts. CCGA recognizes that some run unopposed because they are good public officials and they deserve to continue serving. However, when 55 per cent of the entire Legislative body returns without a challenge, CCGA does not believe that is Democracy in Action.

CCGA says one would think that these unchallenged incumbents would close down their campaigns. It will keep track of contributions to their campaigns, and they encourage these unopposed candidates to refrain from soliciting large contributions in order to avoid the appearance of "contributions for influence" once in office.

CC/IN: Voter ID Law
On April 28 the Supreme Court upheld Indiana's two-year old voter ID law. It requires all voters to present a current photo ID issued either by Indiana or the federal government, or one that has expired since the state's last general election (November 7, 2006). Indiana's photo ID law is the strictest in the country. The Republican-led effort was designed to combat ballot fraud, said supporters, who also have acknowledged that no case involving someone impersonating a voter at the polls has ever been prosecuted in Indiana.

Among those in the news who were denied the right to vote in the May 6 primary were the nuns who lacked ID (no driver's licenses or current passports) and private college students whose student ID was deemed unacceptable.

CC/MN: Social Cause in Point
CCMN has joined forces with former governor Al Quie and State Supreme Court Justice Alan Page to pass a constitutional amendment to protect its judicial election system from partisan politics. The proposal would create a merit-based nomination process, and voters could approve or reject the judge through a retention election. As part of efforts to educate its citizens about this issue, Minnesotans for Impartial Courts, ShiFT, and the University of St. Thomas School of Law held an informative and inspiring forum on May 8 on the issue of ensuring impartial courts for Minnesota.

CC/NC: Big Money in Local Politics
CCNC and NC Policy Watch are sponsoring Crucial Conversation Luncheon: Big Money in Local Politics on May 28. They encourage people to hear municipal elected officials discuss firsthand the growing problem of big money in politics at the local level. The cost to compete for City Council and mayoral races increasingly exceeds six figures, resulting in fewer people willing or able to run for offices and the increasing domination of wealthy special interest money in more campaigns. CCNC will release its statewide study on this issue at this luncheon.

CC/NE: Spring 2008 Newsletter
The spring issue of the CCNE newsletter was published on May 5 and is available online.

CC/NM: Public Campaign Financing 2 for 1
A generous Santa Fe donor has agreed to give 25,000 to CCNM in a matching program to raise funds to continue CCNM's efforts to expand public campaign financing in New Mexico. Between now and the end of the year, donors who wish to help fund an ambitious grassroots and media campaign to expand this important reform will get twice the impact for their contributions.

CC/NY: Reform New York Day 2008
On April 29 almost 200 Common Cause activists and allies gathered in New York's capital of Albany for Reform Day 2008 to offer legislators a way to regain its citizens' trust. CCNY provided principles of a reform agenda, endorsed by dozens of organizations throughout the state, around which they could craft meaningful reforms. The broad issues for reform include changes to the way campaigns are financed, the way the legislature operates, how legislators are held accountable to the public, and termination of the partisan gerrymandering in the state.

An April 27 newspaper article underscored the urgent need for changes to the way Albany operates when it wrote: "If ever there was a state government in need of [reform] it's ours, which has correctly been labeled the most dysfunctional in the land."