Ciara Torres-Spelliscy

2010 was a dark, even apocryphal election during which much of the political spending was from groups who did not reveal themselves. In the 2012 election, we might just have a bit more transparency.

In Citizens United, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations could spend...

Connecticut may be the mouse that startles the lion. Connecticut is a small state, but it has a strong record of leadership in addressing the trouble posed by money in politics. Now Connecticut may be the first state to take shareholder protections seriously post-Citizens United.

After a governor went to...

On December 30, 2011, by a vote of 5 to 2 the Montana Supreme Court decided that Montana's ban on corporate political expenditures dating back to 1912 could stand. In a hard hitting decision, the U.S. Supreme Court's take on the role of corporate money in politics in...

I happened to be New York City on other business, but I could not avoid the lure of Zuccotti Park. So I got some poster board and markers, crafted a homemade sign and took the C train down to the park to talk to the New Yorkers camped...

Any professional boxer worth his salt will tell you the rules of the game matter. Fighters box in weight classes with specific rules like no hitting below the belt. It's boxing after all; not a gladiator match. Democracy could take a few lessons from boxing, especially now that corporations have...

So what's it like to be a campaign finance reformer during the first election after Citizens United? Here's a typical day:

10:00 am. The phone rings. It's a reporter who wants to know about the spending in the midterm election. I point the reporter to www.opensecrets.org for federal...

When Hillary Clinton was a Presidential candidate, male commentators frequently said she couldn't be elected because she reminded men of their nagging wives.

Now, more than a year later, President Obama has nominated a woman, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by Justice Souter's retirement. Mindful...

Last week's TARP stress test results reminded us to ask ourselves: now that the federal taxpayer owns nearly 80% of AIG, are AIG's interests ours? We own a quarter of Citibank; does that mean the bank's desires are now in sync with ours? Is Bank of America -- currently afloat...