Earlier this week, the Huffington Post’s Peter Stone, along with Politico, reported on coordinated efforts by a cabal of outside money groups to spend upwards of $1 billion this year to oust President Obama and congressional Democrats. The money — organized by Karl Rove, the Koch brother’s network of billionaires, and the U.S. Chamber of
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In July, Georgia’s Democratic and Republican Party voters will get a chance to tell their respective political parties that there needs to be lobbying reform. Ballots for both parties will ask “questions about limiting the value of meals, tickets and other gifts lobbyists give to state legislators. The questions are nonbinding but will give policymakers
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(No offense, Mississippi.) Last week, Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to let stand a decision by the Montana Supreme Court, American Tradition Partnership vs. Bullock, upholding the state’s ban on outside election spending by corporations. The anti-environmental group American Tradition Partnership contends that
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Americans everywhere are waking up to the corrupting influence of Big Money on our democratic form of government. Activists are holding rallies, signing petitions, getting city resolutions passed against Citizens United, and taking part in other activities designed to push for major reforms to our system. But that’s not the only way Americans are challenging
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One way Big Money gets its way is by covering its tracks when it influences our government. Many local and city governments, for example, have very weak lobbying laws so it’s almost impossible to know who is influencing your local council member. The city of Galveston, Texas took a stand against that last week, passing
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One of the most powerful lobbies in Washington, D.C. is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The organization, which has opposed everything from the Americans with Disabilities Act to various attempts to fix the American health care system, uses its enormous lobbying dollars to push both Democrats and Republicans to tow its Big Business line. It
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The exodus of major corporations from the corporate front group American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has made headlines nationwide as the group’s agenda has been increasingly scrutinized by the general public. But as these corporations have fled ALEC, there has also been one other little-noticed exodus from the group: that of legislators.  SourceWatch and Keystone Progress
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It’s a bad month for corporate front group the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). The organization has lost at least twelve corporate and foundation sponsors, as the public learns more and more about its corporate agenda. Now, Rep. Greg Cromer (R), ALEC’s State Chairman in Louisiana, has decided to resign from the group. I talked
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