Common Cause Minnesota spent an exciting summer recruiting our board members, establishing our local office, and contacting legislative candidates to learn about their views on issues that matter most to our members. In fact, over the last six months we have built a solid foundation for our state chapter. We were thrilled to have Common Cause President Bob Edgar visit Minnesota in June as we kicked off our foundation-building summer. Please view Bob's message to Common Cause supporters here -
This past week's news includes another cause for celebration: Minnesota is now the 38th state with a Common Cause chapter.
Politicizing NASA
Josh Zaharoff posted on June 2 the results of an investigation by the NASA inspector general's office. The inspector general found that political appointees in the space agency's public affairs office worked to control and distort public accounts of its researchers' findings about climate change for at least two years.
From the fall of 2004 through 2006, the report said, NASA's public affairs office "managed the topic of climate change in a manner that reduced, marginalized, or mischaracterized climate change science made available to the general public." It noted elsewhere that "news releases in the areas of climate change suffered from inaccuracy, factual insufficiency, and scientific dilution."
Josh points out that "the reason we have career staff at government agencies is to handle such issues without political interference -- the exact opposite of what's happening now, as this story shows."
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.
I love when candidates for office talk about the need for public financing of campaigns while they're in the midst of their campaigns. And few messengers are better than Al Franken.
Here's Senate candidate Al Franken on public financing.
If you ever wonder whether we really need public financing of elections in this country, try running for office. You might think I spend most of my time kissing babies or shaking hands or having serious policy debates in which my sparkling wit and superior knowledge of the issues combine to sweep audiences off their feet.
But no. I spend most of my time doing this.
The "this" is sitting on the phone for hours each day. For pictures of Franken during "call time," you'll have to check out his post--in fact, just
read the whole thing. It's worth it.
I'll let his writing do the talking--and a bit of the joking, too--but one other line jumped out:
What I don't like is that I never get to spend enough time really getting into the issues.
On that front, I think I speak for the American public when I say, Al, we're with you.
And while I'm at it, Al, thanks for having the sense and courage to speak out for a fundamental reform--public financing--that others are often hesitant to actively support during a campaign. Keep it up.
Common Blog
