The overwhelming influence of corporate Super PACs on our elections has expanded the gap between voters and their elected leaders into a canyon. Rejecting AIPAC is a crucial step in putting voters back at the center of our democracy.
Matching programs give small donors bigger voices.
If elections are wealthy interests versus voters, the counter to the power of Big Money is to increase voters’ financial power.
What did we learn about money in politics during the Earth’s ride around the Sun this year? The Trump Russia investigation could turn on campaign finance law.
Last week’s off-year elections provided a window into the role money plays in our politics, and the possibilities for campaign finance for reform across the country.
Initiatives on minimum wage, marijuana, gun control and other key issues win voters' approval
Missouri voters are poised to reduce the influence of money on their state's political system.
Our country's greatest failing, the true disaster, of our time: the scourge of growing inequality, economic and political. It is despicable as the very wealthy convert their financial might into political power to guard that wealth while exacerbating inequality further. This is the vast difference between a society whose arrangements serve all its citizens or one whose institutions have been converted into a stupendous fraud - democracy in name only.
Chicago’s democracy is being distorted by an overwhelmingly, white, wealthy and male donor class. But public financing provides a clear solution. The “Fair Election Ordinance,” introduced on January 13, 2016 would match all small donor contributions up to $175, increasing the influence of the most diverse small and mid-level donor pool.
Campaign finance reform, long a lonely political backwater frequented only by good government groups, is suddenly becoming a hot new address for some of this year’s candidates. Whether that will lead to a vibrant new political community remains the open question.
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