WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats on Tuesday used a hearing investigating the unfolding Internal Revenue Service scandal to call for tightening the rules...

WASHINGTON -- The Internal Revenue Service would have an easier time figuring out which groups applying for tax-exempt status are political in nature ...

WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) hit back at Republicans over the politicization of the IRS scandal on Tuesday, charging that ...

WASHINGTON -- Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) unveiled on Tuesday the first bipartisan campaign disclosure bill in the Senate s...

It's heartbreakingly clear that the Democrats won't act courageously. But a number of non-partisan outside groups will.

If the IRS or DOJ were serious about ensuring that so-called social welfare organizations are not abusing their tax-exempt status by engaging in political activities, they could start by taking a close look at IRS forms 990 and 1023.

By Michael Beckel April 11, 2013This story was originally published by The Center for Public Integrity, which is a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigat...

There's a certain conventional wisdom that President Obama wants stronger campaign finance laws, and to protect our democracy from the corrupting effects of money in politics. It's a story that you should no longer believe.

WASHINGTON -- Calling the lack of disclosure on hundreds of millions of dollars in spending during the 2012 election "egregious" and "offensive," Sen....

The 2012 elections showed just how broken our elections are, with millions discouraged from voting due to antiquated registration laws, voter intimidation and misinformation, and the manipulation of voting laws for political gain.

WASHINGTON -- The 2012 election was the most expensive in history, with a pricetag as high as $6 billion. This staggering amount brought with it many ...

WASHINGTON -- In the spring of 2010, Democrats began charting out their legislative response to a Supreme Court ruling that allowed unlimited spending...

WASHINGTON -- In response to the massive increase in undisclosed "dark money" in the nation's elections, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman h...

WASHINGTON -- There has been post-election glee among Democrats, including the highest reaches of the Obama campaign, over the failure of big-moneyed ...

By Justin Elliott, ProPublicaWith campaign finances limits rendered nearly meaningless, election spending is on pace to set records. Where does each p...

WASHINGTON -- The House Democratic leadership stepped out of the Capitol on Wednesday to offer their full support for a package of proposed electoral ...

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who recently led a two-day vigil on the Senate floor to press unsuccessfully for a bill that would req...

WASHINGTON -- In May, the conservative nonprofit group Crossroads GPS, founded by famed political strategist Karl Rove and other leading Republican op...

Let's get on with building a bipartisan uprising of voters to insist that candidates in November pledge to back the DISCLOSE Act and Fair Elections legislation. We can't afford to wait for the Supreme Court. We can't afford to wait for a constitutional amendment.

WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats, battered by a tsunami of independent campaign spending and without legislative recourse, promoted a constitutional ame...

Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America offers profound insights into the early republic and the ways that wealth and political power were dispersed and separated.

We're not going to have our normal partisan talking points today. We're going to follow the lead set by Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, and we're just not going to go there today.

Politicians required to play by the rules, to openly confess that their loyalty has been purchased and forced to identify the highest bidders, could not possibly survive. So they must bend the rules to conceal their transactions. In doing in democracy, their safety is in secrecy, and we must be kept in the dark.