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Campaign Finance Reform

Revised Campaign Finance Reform Bill Awaits Quinn's Signature

Chicago Sun-Times | DAVE McKINNEY | Posted 10.30.2009 | Chicago

Read More: Pat-Quinn-Campaign-Finance-Reform, Illinois Campaign Finance Reform, Campaign Finance Reform, Pat Quinn, Illinois Campaign Donations, Illinois Campaign Contribution Limits, Campaign Finance, Chicago News

The Illinois Senate put the finishing touch on a major campaign-finance package by voting today to send the legislation that caps contributions to Gov...

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Madigan's Campaign Finance Reform Bill Passes House

Chicago Tribune | Ray Long and Monique Garcia | Posted 10.30.2009 | Chicago

Read More: Pat Quinn, Campaign Finance Reform, Illinois Campaign Finance Reform, Rod Blagojevich, Michael Madigan, Chicago News

With time running out, the Illinois House late tonight approved a measure that for the first time would put major restrictions on how politicians pay ...

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A New Crossover Hit: "Break Up the Big Banks"

George Goehl | Posted 10.24.2009 | Business

Read More: Elizabeth Warren, Congress, Campaign Finance Reform, Wall Street, Showdown in Chicago, Michael Moore, Financial Reform, Too Big to Fail, Mortgage Crisis, Obama Administration, Financial Crisis, Alan Greenspan, Sheila Bair, Bankers, Banking Regulation, Banks, Banking Crisis, Business News
George Goehl

We've reached an incredible moment when Alan Greenspan, Michael Moore, FDIC head Sheila Bair and Elizabeth Warren are all singing the same tune: calling for breaking up the big banks.

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Longmont Elections Show Need for Transparency

Michael D. Brown | Posted 10.23.2009 | Denver

Read More: Transparency, Campaign Finance Reform, Longmont-Election-Committee, Mccain-Feingold, Election Reform, Denver News
Michael D. Brown

Drama is playing out in Longmont, where campaign laws thought to prevent corruption by limiting expenditures and contributions is instead corrupting free speech.

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Step Up to Mike's Challenge

Linda Milazzo | Posted 10.20.2009 | Politics

Read More: Roger and Me, Barbara Boxer, Fair Elections Now Act, Houses, Lobbyists, Vermont, Connecticut, Jobs, Fahrenheit 9/11, Dianne Feinstein, Contributors, Arizona, California, Capitalism: A Love Story, New Mexico, New Jersey, Clean Money, Maine, Senator Barbara Boxer, iPhone App, Foreclosure, Congressman Henry Waxman, North Carolina, California Fair Elections, Participatory Democracy, S. 752, H.R. 1826, Campaign Finance, Congress, Democracy, Henry Waxman, Democrats, Sicko, Insurers, Corporations, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Corporate Greed, Medical Treatment, Iphone, Banks, Michael Moore, Republicans, Senate, Campaign Finance Reform, Healthcare, Fena, Hardball, Anderson Cooper, Msnbc, Chris Matthews, Cnn, Politics News
Linda Milazzo

Despite all we've learned from Sicko, Fahrenheit 9/11 and Roger and Me, we continue to take abuse. Our pal Mike is now asking us to act.

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Campaign Finance Laws Could Soon Be Altered

The Huffington Post | Jenna Staul | Posted 10.13.2009 | Politics

Read More: Lobbyblog, Campaign Finance, Court Decision Campaign Finance, Court Decision FEC, Court Decision Unlimited Donations, Campaign Finance Reform, Politics News

Politico reports that a series of court decisions could fundamentally alter the way elections are funded -- even allowing special interests, corporati...

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In Washington, the Revolving Door Is Hazardous to Your Health

Bill Moyers | Posted 10.11.2009 | Politics

Read More: Liz Fowler, Campaign Finance Reform, Michelle Easton, Senate Finance Committee, David Graham Phillips, Public Option, Lobbying, Health Care Reform, Revolving Door, Washington DC, Max Baucus, Barack Obama, Wellpoint, Politics News
Bill Moyers

You can't tell the players without a scorecard in the old Washington shell game. Lobbyist out, lobbyist in. They've been plowing this ground for years, and the soil has never been so fertile.

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A New Social Movement

Jay Mandle | Posted 10.13.2009 | Politics

Read More: Social Justice, Progressive Movement, Activism, Campaign Finance, FECA, Center for Responsive Politics, BCRA, Barack Obama, Campaign Finance Reform, Politics News
Jay Mandle

Progressives have typically avoided addressing the way the electoral system is financed. They have concentrated on the outcome of politics, but not on the political process.

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Campaign Finance Reform Hits Snag

Wall Street Journal | DOUGLAS BELKIN | Posted 10.09.2009 | Chicago

Read More: Illinois Campaign Finance Reform, Campaign Finance Reform, Pat Quinn, Rod Blagojevich, Illinois Campaign Contribution Limits, Change Illinois, Campaign Finance, Michael Madigan, Chicago News

Nearly a year after former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested and accused of running state government as a criminal enterprise, legislators ha...

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Miracle On Pennsylvania Avenue

Suzanne Langlois | Posted 09.30.2009 | Politics

Read More: Big Pharma, Health Insurance Reform, Public Option, Barack Obama, Health Care Protests, Washington, Campaign Finance Reform, Public Option Vote, Pennsylvania Avenue, Politics News
Suzanne Langlois

Are we out of time? Has the health care reform, promised to us by Barack Obama, died the death of a thousand paper cuts?

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Let Corporations Be (Just) Corporations

Michael Sigman | Posted 09.29.2009 | Politics

Read More: Bill Clinton, Meg Whitman, John McCain, Campaign Finance Reform, Carly Fiorina, Jerry Brown, Politics News
Michael Sigman

Corporations are dictatorships, with everyone reporting to the CEO. Governments are vast cooperative bodies with legislatures, courts and other institutions without which executives can't get much done.

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Wall Street and Washington Dissing Main Street, One Year Later

Don McNay | Posted 11.15.2009 | Business

Read More: Anniversary of Financial Meltdown, Bailout, 000 Commode, $35, American Association of Justice, Ben Bernanke, Alan Greenspan, Washington Elites, American College, Campaign Finance Reform, Michael Jackson, Lottery, Small Business, President Obama, Mitch McConnell, Death Panels, Kentuckian, Kentucky, Structured Settlements, Taylor Swift, Vanderbilt University, Eastern Kentucky University, Million Dollar Round Table, Personal Finance, Housing Crisis, Lottery Winners, Robert Kaiser, Business News
Don McNay

Wall Street and Washington don't understand what is happening on Main Street. The people in Washington are pushing the line that they saved us from "something even worse." Like what?

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Why Corporations Shouldn't Play in Elections

Adam Lioz | Posted 11.12.2009 | Politics

Read More: Money in Politics, Citizens United, Corporations, Campaign Finance Reform, Campaign Finance, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, Politics News
Adam Lioz

Allowing huge corporations or wealthy tycoons to purchase political outcomes makes a mockery of the principle behind one person, one vote.

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As Supreme Court Hears Landmark Campaign Finance Case, Public Funding Solution is Missing

Bob Kerrey | Posted 11.11.2009 | Politics

Read More: Supreme Court, Public Funding, Campaign Finance Reform, Congress, Political Science, Federal Election Commission, Free Speech, Fec, First Amendment, US Senate, Fair Elections Now Act, Hillary Clinton, Politics News
Bob Kerrey

When campaign finance legislation levels up rather than limits down political speech, the result is more candidates from diverse backgrounds competing for support. Call it the ''more speech'' solution.

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"Capitolism": A Race between Congressional Corruption and the Most Massive Citizen Involvement in U.S. Legislative History

Gail McGowan Mellor | Posted 11.09.2009 | Politics

Read More: Big Pharma, Corporate Money, Federal Corruption, Consumer Spending, Kentucky, Capitalism, John Authers, John Yarmuth, Healthcare Costs, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Representative Yarmuth, Congressman Yarmuth, Louisville, Special Agent Christiansen, Big Money, Ways and Means Committee, 70 % of GDP, Legal Corruption, Mad as Hell Doctors' Cross Country Tour, Carl Christiansen, Capitolism, Insurance Reform, Rachel Newton, Legalized Corruption, Health Care, Campaign Finance Reform, Fbi, Healthcare, Co-Pay, Politics News
Gail McGowan Mellor

All of the sudden five-year increase in consumer spending, which primed the U.S. economy for the fall, can be attributed to health care costs.

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Mayor Bloomberg and the Arrogance of Power

Jesse Larner | Posted 10.22.2009 | New York

Read More: Christine Quinn, Rudy Giuliani, Michael Bloomberg, City Council, Campaign Finance Reform, Term Limits, Darlene Mealy, 2008 Election, New York, Mayoral Election, New York News
Jesse Larner

All of Michael Bloomberg's defensiveness, and the egotism that clearly lurks beneath it, makes me wonder just why the Mayor really does want to hold onto the office.

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Coming Soon to a Democracy Near You ...

Michael Winship | Posted 10.20.2009 | Politics

Read More: Politics, John McCain, Campaign Finance Reform, Federal Election Commission, Hillary the Movie, Campaign Legal Center, Floyd Abrams. Trevor Potter, Hillary Clinton, Citizens United, Mccain-Feingold, Politics News
Michael Winship

Depending on the outcome of a special Supreme Court hearing, Hillary: The Movie could unleash a new torrent of cash flooding into campaigns from big business.

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Does Anybody Really Know What Time it Is?

Larry Flynt | Posted 10.19.2009 | Business

Read More: Campaign Finance Reform, Wall Street, Lobbying, Lobbyists, Larry Flynt Bailout, Larry Flynt, Campaign Finance, Economy, Business News
Larry Flynt

You hear it more and more, sometimes in code, sometimes spelled out. We have reached the tipping point. The enemy has been identified. It's not left versus right in America. It's democracy versus greed.

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Sotomayor Expected To Favor Campaign Finance Restrictions In Upcoming Case

Washington Independent | Daphne Eviatar | Posted 10.19.2009 | Politics

Read More: Supreme Court, Campaign Finance Reform, Sonia Sotomayor, Hillary the Movie, David Souter, Samuel Alito, John Roberts, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, Politics News

The upcoming re-argument of the case of Citizens United v. FEC, challenging corporate contributions to the financing of Hillary: The Movie, is raising...

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Sue 'Em Back to the Stone Age: The RNC Files Suit to Reverse the Small Donor Revolution

Monica Youn | Posted 10.18.2009 | Politics

Read More: Brennan Center, Campaign Finance Reform, Rnc, Small Donor Revolution, McCain Feingold, Citizens United, Obama Small Donors, Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, Campaign Finance, Politics News
Monica Youn

Last week, a panel of the D.C. federal court heard arguments in a case where the RNC is seeking to turn back the clock to a time before Obama's "small-donor revolution."

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End the Money Chase, Get Back to the Business of Governing

Bob Kerrey | Posted 07.26.2009 | Politics

Read More: Congressional Fundraising, Campaign Finance Reform, Fundraising, Campaign Finance, Politics News
Bob Kerrey

You say you want to serve your country in Congress? Show me the money. Otherwise, you will be shown the door.

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Just Say NO to Fundraising Requests from Politicians

Lawrence Lessig | Posted 07.24.2009 | Politics

Read More: Donor Strike, Politics, Campaign Finance Reform, Money, Change Congress, Fec, Special Interests, Lawrence Lessig, Fundraising, Campaign Finance, Politics News
Lawrence Lessig

It's that time of the year again. Every quarter, just as the FEC reporting deadlines approach, politicians go on a mad scramble for last-minute donations.

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Stop Big Food From Using the Playbook of Big Tobacco

Paula Crossfield | Posted 07.17.2009 | Green

Read More: Usda, Big Tobacco, Big Food, Food Inc., Fda, Lobbying, Health, Food Safety, Obesity, Health Care, Surgeon General, Campaign Finance Reform, Farm Subsidies, Green News
Paula Crossfield

While millions still die of smoking related illness every year, it's not too late to lift the veil from Big Food, and in doing so, save lives and public health for years to come.

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Sonia Sotomayor and the Hypocrisy of "Conservative" Critics

Geoffrey R. Stone | Posted 06.30.2009 | Politics

Read More: Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor Supreme Court, New York Times, David Souter, Campaign Finance Reform, Affirmative Action, Sonia Sotomayor, Politics News
Geoffrey R. Stone

If conservatives truly believe in conservative judicial principles, then they should be delighted with Judge Sotomayor's apparent views on affirmative action and campaign finance regulation.

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Roh's Second New Day

Bernard Rowan | Posted 06.28.2009 | World

Read More: Suicide, Corruption, Roh Moo-Hyun, Shame, Democracy, South Korea, Campaign Finance Reform, Roh-Moo-Hyun-Suicide, Asia, World News
Bernard Rowan

The death of Roh Moo-hyun is a call for Koreans on all sides of the political spectrum to limit the influence of money on political candidates and their families.

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