Common Cause continues its efforts to hold power accountable.

Abuse of Power: Forging the Path to Recovery

Common Cause hosted a distinguished panel on June 10 to discuss the widespread abuse of power engaged in by the current Administration. The Administration has disregarded the rule of law through over-broad assertions of executive power, abuse of signing statements, and policies that arguably flout the Constitution regarding interrogation, detention, and intelligence gathering. The Congress has repeatedly failed to perform its constitutionally mandated oversight duties in each of these areas.

The panelists were charged with examining these disturbing trends and with considering how best to restore the constitutional constraints that have served our country well since its inception.

Here's a recap of Common Cause's work over the past two weeks. We're celebrating hard-won victories regarding the FEC and FCC and highlighting other important work throughout the country.

Federal Election Commission (FEC): We Stopped The White House Again!
On May 16 controversial White House nominee Hans von Spakovsky withdrew his name from consideration for a position on the FEC. Common Cause, working with a coalition of voting rights and reform groups, had opposed von Spakovsky because of his work at the Justice Department rolling back voting rights laws.

On Saturday, March 29th, about 150 Californians came together on a beautiful sunny day in Pasadena to discuss how the media impacts their community.

The event was called Media, Democracy and Justice - A Southern California Regional Summit and featured a couple dozen expert speakers and panelists. There was discussion about how journalists are impacted by media consolidation, how communities of color lose their voice in our corporate media system, how the loss of net neutrality would hurt our democracy and many other subjects.

There was also considerable discussion about improve the state of the media and take it into our own hands by such means as Low Power FM radio, supporting alternative press, taking advantage of social networking systems, and coming together to create a media justice movement.

The best thing to come out of the day was that there was a clear sense that people want to stay involved and continue the fight for improving the media. Common Cause will make sure people will stay connected and have a forum in which to work together.

Some photos of the event are available online here.

Many thanks to all who attended, sponsored, and participated in the event!

California Common Cause has worked for years to change the process by which politicians currently draw their own political districts -- a process that in effect allows politicians to choose their voters before voters can choose among politicians.

These efforts took a big step forward today with the official launch of the Voters FIRST initiative.  This ballot question, filed by Common Cause, AARP, and the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, will appear on the November 2008 ballot if enough Californians sign petitions to support it by next April.
Read the full text of the initiative here.

Today, the campaign received a big boost in receiving endorsements from the California League of Women Voters and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Common Cause is leading the charge on redistricting in California, campaign finance reform in Wisconsin and Nebraska, watchdogging in Georgia, and more.  Check out the fruits of our ongoing labor around the country....

• California Common Cause introduces statewide redistricting initiative for 2008 ballot
• Common Cause Georgia establishes first satellite unit outside Atlanta
• Governor of Wisconsin breaks promise on campaign finance reform
• Common Cause Nebraska still gunning for Public Service Commission campaign reform
• Hearing, rally, and continued pressure on FCC to block media consolidation and support localism

The North County Times, a California newspaper serving San Diego and Riverside Counties, reported that money can talk, especially in San Bernardino County, at all levels of government.  San Bernardino's Bill Postmus spent an outrageous $2.4 million dollars on his campaign to win the seat of county assessor in his local 2006 election.

In California, where the majority of its 58 counties and 478 cities do not cap individual contributions to candidates running for local offices, special interests such as developers and casino-operators are spending thousands to buy political influence at the expense of the community.

And when you lose your home, it's heartbreaking.  We've been documenting parts of the home foreclosure crisis here in the past couple weeks--like the 1.2 million home foreclosure filings last year, a 42% rise--and our latest Ask Yourself Why report linked average Americans losing their homes to the $210 million the mortgage lending industry spent to stop Congress from regulating predatory lending.

The link is clear.  The mortgage lending industry used its millions to keep profits rolling in at the expense of many aspiring homeowners.  And, sadly, we've seen the same strategy from many special interests--spending big money to win political favors at the expense of average Americans.

That's why we need to pass Fair Elections Now, a bill that will create a public financing system for Senate elections and stop the money chase.

And Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) can play a key role in winning this key reform to put voters back in charge of our democracy again.

Feinstein chairs the powerful Rules Committee, and has committed to hold a hearing on the Fair Elections Now Act.  What she--and others--need to hear from constituents is how important this reform is, how troubled we are by the influence of big money in politics, and how much support she will have if she'll help lead the fight for Fair Elections.

We need folks in California to make a short phone call to tell Sen. Feinstein: "Passing Fair Elections Now, S. 1285, will mean getting the influence of big money out of politics, and we need your leadership."

She has four state offices:

San Francisco: (415) 393-0707
Los Angeles: (310) 914-7300
San Diego: (619) 231-9712
Fresno: (559) 485-7430

Please give her a call, then drop a comment here to let us know how the call went.  We need Fair Elections for Congress!