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EXCLUSIVE: Virginia Officials Confirm Criminal Election Fraud Investigation of Gingrich Campaign

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Brad Blog - Jan. 31 (News) - Had the same thing been carried out by a worker for the now-defunct ACORN, Republicans -- and even Newt Gingrich -- would have called it massive "voter fraud". But the 1,500 acts of fraud, by Gingrich's own admission, were carried out by a worker hired by his campaign, so ...

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As States Take on Citizens United, Lawrence Lessig Offers Bold Plan to Get Money Out of Politics

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jan. 04 (News Report) - California and New York City lawmakers are introducing measures today calling for a constitutional amendment overturning Citizens United, the controversial 2010 Supreme Court ruling that characterizes political spending as free speech and opened the floodgates for unlimited corporate spending on election campaigns. Similar measures have passed in Los Angeles, Oakland, Albany and Boulder. We speak with Harvard Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig, author of a new book that examines how money buys results in Congress and fuels campaigns that put the powerful in office. Lessig argues that both De

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With Republic, Lost, Lawrence Lessig Takes Center Stage

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By John Wellington Ennis - Dec. 30 (Interview) - In this pivotal year of public uproar over the consequences of money in politics, Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig has attracted considerably more attention to his work in devising a constitutional road map for reform.

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Lawrence Lessig: The Great Promise of Super-PACs

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Lawrence Lessig - Dec. 20 (Special Report) - There's a certain terror to the life of a Member of Congress that, with all their pomp and pretense, is easy to miss. It runs something like this: An incumbent goes into an election, fairly confident about his or her prospects. They have money in the bank, polling in the low sixties, and an opponent with little chance to close the gap. Then 30 days out, a super-PAC drops half a million dollars in the district, funding attack ads, and ads that support the challenger. Very quickly, an easy reelection is thrown into doubt. Incumbents are beginning to recognize this pattern. But the most terrifying bit for the country is how they are reacting.

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Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress--and a Plan to Stop It

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

edmaysproductions.net - By Lawrence Lessig - Dec. 17 (Speech) - In an era when special interests funnel huge amounts of money into our government-driven by shifts in campaign-finance rules and brought to new levels by the Supreme Court in "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission-"trust in our government has reached an all-time low. More than ever before, Americans believe that money buys results in Congress, and that business interests wield control over our legislature. With heartfelt urgency and a keen desire for righting wrongs, Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig takes a clear-eyed look at how we arrived at this crisis: how fundamentally good people, with good intentions, have allowed our democracy to be co-opted by outside interests, and how this exploitation has become entrenched in the system. Rejecting simple labels and reductive logic-and instead using examples that resonate as powerfully on the Right as on the Left-Lessig seeks out the root causes of our situation. He plumbs the issues of campaign financing and corporate lobbying, revealing the human faces and follies that have allowed corruption to take such a foothold in our system. He puts the issues in terms that nonwonks can understand, using real-world analogies and real human stories. And ultimately he calls for widespread mobilization and a new Constitutional Convention, presenting achievable solutions for regaining control of our corrupted-but redeemable-representational system. In this way, Lessig plots a roadmap for returning our republic to its intended greatness. While America may be divided, Lessig vividly champions the idea that we can succeed if we accept that corruption is our common enemy and that we must find a way to fight against it. In REPUBLIC, LOST, he not only makes this need palpable and clear-he gives us the practical and intellectual tools to do something about it.

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So You Want to Buy an Election?

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Mother Jones - By Tim Murphy - Dec. 06 (Opinion) - A short, shady history of how American elections are bought and paid for. The red giants and blue dwarfs spending millions to influence the 2012 election. Americans Elect says it wants to reform the political system. Campaign watchdogs say it should star

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In Campaign Financing, More Money Can Beat Big Money

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Lawrence Lessig - Nov. 17 (Opinion) - A public funding system would stop the influence of big money in politics.

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Don't like how we elect a president? Americans Elect offers alternative.

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Christian Science Monitor - By Andrew Mach - Nov. 16 (Special Report) - To combat discontent with the political climate, Americans Elect aims to put the first directly nominated nonpartisan presidential candidate on the ballot, decided by an online convention. ...

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Pastors who illegally endorse from pulpit face few consequences

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

ProPublica - Oct. 08 (News) -

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Racial Dilution of Voting Records

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Black Box Voting - By Bev Harris - Sep. 29 (Opinion) - In Shelby County, precincts are racially polarized; some are mostly Black, some almost all White, and some are "in play", meaning they are mixed enough that it's anybody's guess which party will win. If votes were simply flipped so that Republicans got the Democratic votes and vice versa, it would be immediately seen in a county with known racially-related political preferences and concentrated ethnic populations. If you wanted to flip the counts, you’d need to either (1) dilute the reported racial demographic or (2) create a precinct-specific vote flipping method, or both. Both of these factors exist in Shelby County.

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House Democrats push legislation to overturn Citizens United ruling

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Hill - By Mike Lillis - Sep. 23 (News) - The proposal would amend the Constitution to reverse the Supreme Court ruling that sanctioned unlimited corporate spending on elections. Read more...

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CNN Poll: Time to clean house in Congress?

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

CNN - Aug. 09 (Poll) - Need more evidence that Americans are extremely angry at Congress? Well, here you go: According to a new national survey, for the first time ever most Americans don't believe their own member of Congress deserves re-election.

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The Icebergs Cometh: Retaking the USA Titanic Before the 2012 Elections

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

organicconsumers.org - By Victoria Collier, Ronnie Commins - Aug. 08 (Opinion) - In the wake of a super-nova of exploded hope in President Obama, a power vacuum is now spinning in our political universe. A desperate need to fill the void (lest it someday be filled with the unthinkable; a babbling Bachmann or weeping Boehner) has led to a frenzy of organizing among mainstream Democrats and Progressives. Click here to read this article

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Make Way for the Radical Center

Sat, 23 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Thomas L. Friedman - Jul. 23 (Editorial) -

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Stephen Colbert's running PAC shtick creates sticky mess

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Politico - By Kenneth P. Vogel - Jun. 30 (News) - Advocates of reducing the power of money in politics thought they had found a champion in the unlikely person of Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert, whose ongoing shtick about forming a political action committee brought more attention to their cause than all their press releases, testimony and legal briefs combined.

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How states are rigging the 2012 election

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By E.J. Dionne Jr. - Jun. 20 (Opinion) - An attack on the right to vote is underway across the country through laws designed to make it more difficult to cast a ballot. If this were happening in an emerging democracy, we’d condemn it as election-rigging. But it’s happening here, so there’s barely a whimper.

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How state legislatures could affect the 2012 elections

Sun, 05 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Politico - By Molly Ball - Jun. 05 (News) - Across the country, state legislatures are embroiled in partisan battles over election-law changes that, by design or effect, could play a significant role in determining the outcome of the presidency.

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Obama order could make corporate political spending public

Mon, 09 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Matea Gold - May. 09 (News Report) - A lobbying battle is raging largely behind the scenes over a seemingly obscure executive order that could — if signed by President Obama — make public the political spending that many corporations can now keep secret.

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Bombshell ballots in tight Supreme Court election race getting a closer look in Wisconsin

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - By By Jason Stein, Laurel Walker, Bill Glauber - Apr. 09 (News) - MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin's top elections official said Friday that he is sending state staff to examine results in Waukesha County, where thousands of previously uncounted votes were revealed Thursday in a bombshell that upended the tight state Supreme Court race.

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In states, partisan clashes over voting laws affecting college students, others

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Peter Wallsten - Mar. 07 (News Report) - Backers of the voting measures say they would bring fairness and restore confidence in a voting system vulnerable to fraud. Many states, for instance, do not require identification to vote. Measures being proposed in 32 states would add an ID requirement or proof of citizenship, according to an analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.

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Learning democracy from terrorists?

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

cellspin.net - By Thom Hartmann - Feb. 07 (Opinion) - Thom rants on the best of the rest of the news including what can we learn about democracy from terrorists...

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Secretaries of state up the political ante

Mon, 03 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

stateline.org - By Louis Jacobson - Jan. 03 (News Analysis) - As Kris Kobach and Scott Gessler prepare to take office as secretary of state for Kansas and Colorado, respectively, their elections are putting to rest any lingering notions that the job of secretary of state is a quiet, low-key, technocratic position.

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Overturn Citizens United -- Demand Fair Elections and a Fair Economy

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

majorityrules.org - By Craig Salins - Dec. 08 (Opinion) - We need a broad movement to overturn the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling (January, 2010). Without that, nearly everything we do to stop or rein in the corporate takeover of our country is unlikely to make headway - because of the two-sides-of-a-coin relationship between spending on elections and lobbying, and public policy lawmaking.

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Despite Alaska Senate race results, Joe Miller presses on in principle

Sun, 28 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Sandhya Somashekhar - Nov. 28 (News Report) - Much of America may have moved on, but Joe Miller has not. More than a week after the last vote was counted in Alaska's closely watched U.S. Senate race, the Republican nominee continues to press his case in court in hopes of grabbing back a victory that once seemed inevitable.

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Ranked-choice voting complaints mount

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

californiawatch.org - By Lance WIlliams - Nov. 22 (News) - In a post-election interview, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, the incoming lieutenant governor, told his hometown paper that he was among city voters who had been confused by ranked-choice voting. Newsom said he filled out his own ballot incorrectly, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

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