take back democracy

We are proud to announce our endorsement of Ruben Gallego, who is running for Congress in Arizona!

Ruben is an Iraq veteran and state legislator. He is also a young activist who has worked to increase the number of Latino voters and led fights for worker rights, immigration reform, marijuana legalization, and marriage equality.

He supports expanding Social Security benefits and taking on the student debt crisis.

Ruben Gallego is a bold reformer committed to aAi??constitutional amendment overturning Citizens United and the Government By The People Act — a bill would create a system where small-dollar donations will be matched with public funds to gives a $100 donation from a high school teacher the same weight as aAi??lobbyist who contributesAi??$700.

Read more on Ruben’s website:

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And check out Ruben’s responses to our questionnaire:

Ruben faces a tough primary on August 26th against a more conservative opponent.

Most importantly, Ruben and his team are building infrastructure. They have built an amazing grassroots movement of young people who are knocking on doors every day. They aren’t just trying to win a congressional race. They are trying to build progressive power in Arizona.

This is a safe Democratic district — so it’s important that a true progressive win the election.

Ruben has received numerous endorsements, including from Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Planned Parenthood, The Sierra Club, MoveOn.org, VoteVets.org, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and a dozen unions and labor organizations.

The Progressive …

Check out the Top Ten Highlights of 2013 from the Progressive Change Campaign Committee!

It’s been a great year. Thanks to all of our bold progressive members for being part of it!

1. “Expand Social Security”

In July, we announced a big strategic shift: Instead of playing defense, we would rally around bills to EXPAND Social Security benefits.

Along with our allies, PCCC members deliveredAi??petitionsAi??to congressional offices around the nation. We releasedAi??pollsAi??showing this idea was popular by 2 to 1 in Kentucky and 3 to 1 in Texas!

After the Washington Post op-ed pageAi??attackedAi??”bold progressives” for leading the way on this issue, Elizabeth Warren made national news that day by endorsing Social Security expansion on the Senate floor (and in an email to PCCC members).

Nobel economist Paul Krugman writes, “a funny thing has happened in the past year or so. Suddenly, weai??i??re hearing open discussion of the idea that Social Security should be expanded, not cut.ai???

2. PCCC membersAi??Ai??Elizabeth Warren

When Elizabeth Warren called for students to get the same low interest rates as big banks, over 1000 professors (who are also PCCC members) endorsed the idea.

When Elizabeth Warren demanded bank regulators crack down on Wall Street crimes, PCCC members pressured the SEC to listen!

When Elizabeth Warren was attacked, PCCC members attacked back!

Warren’s hometown Boston GlobeAi??profiledAi??us recently. They wrote, “A group called Progressive Change Campaign Committee is waging the most visible of these pro-Warren crusades.”

The NationAi??writes, “Warrenai??i??s voice is amplified by groups like the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which have identified her as their ‘north star’ in the fight to renew the Democratic Party. That scares corporate interests.”

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee will be running a unique online debate on Saturday featuring all five Democratic candidates in the 5th Congressional District.

The debate, which will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 10, will be run through the website OpenDebateQuestions.com, which the PCCC is debuting for this event. The public will submit questions and then vote on which questions they like. Massachusetts voters will pick the top 50 questions, and moderators will choose from those questions to ask the candidates. The candidates will participate via video from remote locations. So far, people have submitted more than 300 questions.

Yesterday, eight progressive organizations — the Progressive Change Campaign Committee,Ai??MoveOn, DFA, CREDO, Rebuild the Dream, Wolf PAC, Working Families Organization, and Daily Kos — sent an open letter to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Rep. John B. LarsonAi??(D-CT), chairman of theAi??House Democrats’ Task Force on Election Reform, and Ranking Member Robert Brady (D-PA)Ai??urging them to take up legislation to create real citizen-funded elections — and not a weaker system that would reward candidates who continue to rake in big-dollar contributions. The letter reads as follows:

Leader Pelosi, Representative Larson, and Ranking Member Brady:

We have been following the work of the Task Force on Election Reform. We write to applaud your leadership and attention to the critical issue of campaign finance reform ai??i?? and to inform you that we stand ready to mobilize millions of Americans around strong legislation that brings forth citizen-funded elections for Congress.

For us, the goal of such legislation is to increase the power of ordinary Americans in our democracy and to incentivize candidates to spend their time talking with ordinary Americans instead of special-interest donors. We ask you to put the full weight of Democratic Leadership behind a bill that achieves those goals ai??i?? a bill such asAi??The Fair Elections Now Act (HR 269, Yarmuth)Ai??andAi??Grassroots Democracy Act (HR 268, Sarbanes).

While these two bills have differences, their core similarity is that they create a robust system of matching funds for candidates who opt to only raise small-dollar donations. This would be game changing. Candidates would be incentivized to spend their time courting ordinary Americans and would have dramatically less incentive to court big-money, special-interest donors. We understand that progress is being made on merging these bills into one, and we look forward to rallying the public around such a bill.

We cannot get behind …

The concern that Cuomo isnai??i??t really one of them continues to this month as the left presses him on passing a system of publicly financed political campaigns. Cuomo unveiled the bill for elections reform this week and it includes a $41 million public system thatai??i??s similar to New York Cityai??i??s program. Still, this the $20 million man trying to get the money out of politics, a governor who has assembled a massive war chest from a variety of interests while also backing an overhaul of the very system heai??i??s so thrives in.

Itai??i??s a dissonant note for some. So thatai??i??s why a liberal group, Progressive Change Campaign Committee, is unveiling today a petition to pressure singer Paul Simon, who is slated to perform at a high-dollar Cuomo fundraiser, to support publicly financed elections.

The failure of the Manchin-Toomey legislation yesterday to expand background checks for gun purchases has been blamed on a variety of factors. But one key detail is the fact that the gun lobby — consisting of the National Rifle Association, Gun Owners of America, and other groups funded by the gun industry — was a major fundraiser for Senators that opposed the reform bill.

The Center for Responsive Politics laid out donors to senators who both supported and opposed Manchin-Toomey, and found that lawmakers who opposed it received nearly eight times as much funding from the gun lobby. Meanwhile, it found that only $5,000 came from pro-reform groups (to the “yes” side):

Click here to sign our petition in support of background checks for gun purchases.

Ai??Click here to join our Take Back Democracy campaign to help kick money out of politics.

Democratic Senate candidate U.S. Rep. Edward Markey reached out to progressive activists around the country on Thursday, doing a 45-minute phone call with the Progressive Change Campaign Committee… [He] touted his history favoring public financing of campaigns, advocating for net neutrality, opposing the Defense of Marriage Act and supporting a public option in health insurance, and eventually a single payer system.

Lanny Breuer

LannyAi??Breuer, who was theAi??Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice under President Obama, conceded in a recent PBS documentary that “no Wall Street executives” were prosecuted under his tenure.

Now we know one reason why Breuer may’ve been so soft on the Big Banks. He has just announced that he will be returning to Covington & Burling, a white collar defense law firm that “represented corporations that were investigated by the criminal division” of the Department of Justice.

Ethics law prevents him from “appearing before the DOJ on a clientai??i??s behalf for two years. He can, however, counsel a client on a new matter before the department from behind the scenes.”

Breuer isn’t the only big get for the firm this year. Former Republican Senator Jon Kyl (AZ) and former Democratic Rep. Howard Berman (CA) both joined the firm’s lobbying practice recently. It also happens to be the firm that Attorney General Eric Holder — who notoriously failed to hold banks accountable as well — worked at.

UPDATE: The American Bankers Association was one of the firm’s clients in 2012, giving it $40,000. Wells Fargo was as well, giving it $120,000.

Click here to join our Take Back Democracy campaign to help stop the influence of money in our politics.

You should follow BoldProgressives on Twitter here.

Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC)

Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) is one of his party’s few remaining advocates for serious campaign finance reform. Every year he co-authors a bill that would create a system of public financing for Congressional elections, which would allow lawmakers to run for office without having to court corporate special interests.

In a live chat with Blue America readers this afternoon, blogger Heather Parton (Digby) asked Jones about why he supports this overhaul. He replied by explaining how the leader of his party kicked him off of Ai??a committee for failing to raise enough money for the party:

I believe one the problems in Congress is that both parties are responsible for raising money for the next election. As I have said many times, I am part of the problem, but I work across party lines to be part of the solution. Recently, I was one of four Republicans taken off a committee, Financial Services, which deals with banking, insurance and securities. An aide to the Speaker of the House spoke to the press and acknowledged that one reason, among two reasons, is because I did not raise money for the party. Members in both parties will tell you that this is a problem in Washington. I am a cosponsor of legislation, that will probably not move forward, that will help resolve this problem.

Click here to join our Take Back Democracy campaign to help stop the influence of money in our politics.

You should follow BoldProgressives on Twitter here.

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Money in politics isn’t just about campaign funds, is also involves what happens after a lawmaker leaves office.

In office, Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) saved Wall Street banks tens of billions of dollars by writing loopholes in the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law.

Today, the law and lobbying firm Nixon Peabody announced that it will be hiring Brown to assist its “practice on business and governmental affairs as they relate to the financial services industry as well as on commercial real estate matters.”

Nixon Peabody has clients that include Goldman Sachs, which paid it $140,000 in 2012.

Keep in mind that while it would be illegal for Brown to register as a federal lobbyist before his cooling off period ends, he is free to unofficially act as a lobbyist.

While Brown will literally work for Wall Street, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has been aggressively taking on the Big Banks. Last week, at a stunning hearing before federal regulators, she asked why banks that launder money for drug lords are not being put out of business. Watch it:

Click here to join Warren in demanding that federal regulators hold Wall Street accountable.
Click here to join our Take Back Democracy campaign to help stop the influence of money in our politics.

You should follow BoldProgressives on Twitter here.

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Gov. Tom Corbett (R-PA)

Pennsylvania’s Republican Governor Tom Corbett has been an ally to Big Business and the rich — Ai??subsidizing private schools, cutting taxes on the rich, and opening up more land for gas drilling.

An investigation published this morning by the Philadelphia Inquirer finds one reason why: Ai??since he ran in 2010, lobbyists and corporations have given over $11,000 in gifts and perks to Corbett and his wife. Here are a few of them:

$2,500 tickets to theAi??Ai??Philadelphia Academy of Music anniversary concert: These tickets came courtesy of the Blank Rome law firm, which represents gas drillers among others.
Expensive flights on private jets:Ai??Frank Schoeneman, chief executive of the Pottsville-based Empire Education Group, flew Corbett on a private jet to an event in Pittsburgh, for a cost of $1,407.
Buying the first lady a pricey gown: The chief executive ofAi??Aegis Security Insurance donated $1,800 for the cost of Mrs. Corbett’s inaugural gown and coat.

Pennsylvania law technically bars donors from giving anything to a public official that would guarantee a quid-pro-quo — meaning that if Corbett were to explicitly guarantee anything in return for these gifts, he’d be breaking the law. But it does not ban gift-giving.

Click here to join our Take Back Democracy campaign to help stop the influence of money in our politics.

You should follow BoldProgressives on Twitter here.

George P. Bush

Last month, George Prescott Bush, the nephew of former president George W. Bush, announced that he had raised $1.3 million — before even deciding which office in Texas he wanted to run for.

While Bush has still not made up his mind about which office he wants to run for, a batch of elite lobbyists in Atlanta will be throwing him a fundraiser next Wednesday. We’ve exclusively obtained a fundraising invite to the event, which we uploaded below:

As you can see, hosts pitch in $1,000, while you can join the general reception for $250 or pay $500 for a photo with Bush.

The exploratory committee is notable for the presence of so many lobbyists. Here’s a few listed:

Rufus Montgomery: Montgomery, the Chairman of the fundraising event, is a prominent Georgian lobbyist, being the managing director of Government Affairs at Hall Booth Smith, P.C. Rufus “stays mum on the details of his lobbyist work,” but is known to represent Fortune 500 corporations, among others.Ai??ai???I fly under the radar,ai??? he told Georgia Trend Magazine, ai???but I derive a lot of satisfaction from influencing public policy.ai??? Disclosures show he has held accounts with chemical lobbyists at the American Chemistry Council and with the for-profit online education company Edison, Inc.
Brad Carver: Carver is the senior managing directorAi??of Government Affairs at Hall Booth Smith, meaning that he is another Georgia lobbyist.
Jason Anivitarte: Anivitarte is the Atlanta lobbyist for health care giant Kaiser Permanente.
Brian Hudson: Hudson’s lobbying client list in Georgia includes anti-labor Home Depot, Time Warner, and Quick Click Loans, llc — a loan shark.
R.J. Briscione: Briscione is a lobbyist for health insurer Wellpoint.

Again, Bush has not even …

In Georgia, both progressive groups like Common Cause and conservative organizations like the Tea Party have joined hands to demand restrictions on the gifts that lobbyists can give to lawmakers.

Many in the legislature are considering a gift limit of $100 per gift, and others want to ban gifts outright. Polling shows that 72% of Georgians want to see gifts to lawmakers capped.

Under the watchful eyes of this new bipartisan reform movement, lobbyist gift spending has actually plummeted. While lobbyists spent aAi??sizableAi??sum on gifts in January 2013 — $240,000 — this is actually a 35% decline from January 2012.

This is evidence that an engaged public tackling the issue of corruption can make an impact even before it passes actual reform laws.

Click here to join our Take Back Democracy campaign to help stop the influence of money in our politics.

You should follow BoldProgressives on Twitter here.

State senator Kelly Hancock (R-TX)

All states have certain regulators that have oversight of the practices of insurance companies (in some states this involves rate review, a power insurance companies have fought for years).

In Texas, this is called theAi??Office of Public Insurance Counsel (OPIC). OPIC made news recently when it blocked a 20 percent increase in homeowners insurance rates by State Farm. Shortly after OPIC moved to do this, Republican State senator Kelly Hancock last week filed a bill to eliminate the agency.

Texans for Public Justice pulled the numbers and found that insurers made up 8 percent of Kelly’s donors in 2012, with State Farm’s political action committee being the second-largest donor — giving $10,000.

Click here to join our Take Back Democracy campaign to help stop the influence of money in our politics.

Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY) has been a huge supporter of both fracking and subsidies for Big Oil. At a town hall this weekend, some of his constituents took issue with his support for these dirty industries.

After defending the exemption of fracking from the Clean Water and Clean Air acts, one constituent asked him about the over $100,000 he’s gotten from the oil and gas industries. He responded that he has “no idea” where that money came from:

CONSTITUENT QUESTION: Do you think the fracking industry should remain exempt from the Clean Air and Drinking Water Acts? […]

REED: […] I am not a believer in expanding federal government, I believe we have to downsize federal government. What we’re on a path here by doing that I think is expanding government. […] I would defer to the state and defer to the local bodies on that.

(Audience hissing)

CONSTITUENT 1: Water and air are across state borders!

CONSTIUTENT 2: Where did your $126,000 from gas companies come from? Which lobbyists? Which companies besides Chesapeake and the other lobbyists?

REED: No idea. No idea. We don’t keep track of that. I don’t keep track of that.

Watch it:

Reed should know that he is actually legally required to “keep track of that” — and that it’s actually public information. The oil and gas industry was his third-largest donor in 2012. Here’s some of the biggest backers:

Chesapeake Energy: $10,000 to Reed. Chesapeake, one of America’s largest fracking companies, has angered homeowners nationwide with its excessive use of legal maneuvers to gain access to land to drill on.
National Fuel Gas Corporation:Ai??$10,000 to Reed. This fracking company is based in Western Pennsylvania and New York.
America’s Natural Gas Alliance: $4,400 to Reed. This is one of the main advocacy coalitions for natural …

Join PCCC’s Take Back Democracy campaign.

Iowa State SenatorAi??Jeff Danielson (D) has announced that he will soonAi??introduce bills to accomplish three important political reforms:

-A resolution that the General Assembly supports the repeal of Citizenai??i??s United, a U.S. Supreme Court decision that prohibited limitations on independent expenditures.
-A bill that requires full disclosure in campaigns.
-A measure that sets up a mechanism for public financing of political campaigns.

The Iowa Public Interest Research Group estimatesAi??that “96.21 percent of the money spent on Iowa House races came from groups registered outside the state. Those groups spent $8.3 million, and 36.6 percent of those dollars came from undisclosed donors.”

Want to help us pass badly needed reforms? Click here to join PCCC’s Take Back Democracy campaign.

Join PCCC’s Take Back Democracy campaign.

One of the ways that special interests get privileged access to lawmakers is buying them meals. In many state capitols, there are almost no restrictions on the kinds of fancy dinners lobbyists can treat legislators with.

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D) has advice for these lawmakers: don’t do it. In an interview this week with a local paper, he told legislators, “Make your own food” and stop going to lunch with lobbyists:

SCHWEITZER: Donai??i??t show up when they (lobbyists) have a free lunch for you. Donai??i??t show up down at Jorgensonai??i??s. Donai??i??t show up down at the Montana Club. Donai??i??t show up. Make your own food at home. Donai??i??t take that drink. Donai??i??t take that food. If you believe that aspersions have been cast upon you because youai??i??re going to these things, then donai??i??t go to them. Make your own meal. But until you do that, the assumption is going to be that your vote has been bought for an old whiskey and a big steak. And in some cases, it has.ai???

It’s going to take a movement to end the corrupting influence of money on our politics. Click here to join PCCC’s Take Back Democracy campaign.

Join PCCC’s Take Back Democracy campaign.

The Republican Party has completely embraced money in politics. Its leaders refuse to even support campaign finance disclosure laws that they once supported.

In an interview with radio network WUIS, incoming Illinois Republican Congressman-elect Rodney Davis indicated that he would be in favor of disclosure of donors to outside electoral groups and even support spending limits:

Rodney Davis is the only Republican among the six men and women who will soon be Illinoisai??i?? newest Congressmen. He also won with the narrowest margin of victory. Even so, Davis says he has something in common with his fellow legislative freshmen.

DAVIS: ai???We all had to withstand a barrage of false and misleading ads.ai???

Thatai??i??s in part because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling (PDF) that allowed unlimited amounts of money, often from secret sources, to flood the airwaves with attack ads. The case was called Citizens United.

DAVIS: ai???I think all us that have been impacted by Citizens United ai??i?? and impacted during this election cycle, by spending that we canai??i??t control ai??i?? weai??i??re all going to have a say in what happens in the future, and I think something needs to be done.ai???

Davis, who is from Taylorville, says he thinks the identity of donors should be public. And he says heai??i??d consider supporting limits on the amount of money outside groups can raise or spend. But thatai??i??s just the kind of law the Supreme Court overturned in the Citizens United case.

The question is, will Davis stick to his stated statements to reform the campaign finance system, or will he defer to House Speaker John Boehner, who totally opposes all reforms?

It’s time to reclaim our democracy from Big Money donors. Click here to join our …

During the “Education Nation” forum today on NBC, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney addressed the issue of teachers unions. He said that he wouldn’t necessarily ban teacher strikes but that he thinks it’s a problem that unions donate to politicians who are responsible for negotiating with them:

Speaking inAi??New YorkAi??City at Education Nation, a forum sponsored by NBC, Romney told interviewer Brian Williams that he is not necessarily against a right to strike. ai???I donai??i??t know that I would prevent teachers from being able to strike,ai??? he said, adding later that ai???allowing teachers to strike on matters such as compensation I think is a right that exists in this country.ai???

The bigger problem, Romney said, is that ai???the person sitting across the table from them should not have received the largest campaign contribution from the teachers’ union themselves…. [Itai??i??s] an extraordinary conflict of interest and something that should be addressed.ai???

So Romney thinks that it unfairly tips the scales when a group that a politician is supposed to be negotiating with and regulating donates to that very same politician. That is a fair criticism. But let’s take a look at his top eight donors. They’re all banks:

Romney has made repealing the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform bill one of his key campaign promises. If he fails to succeed in repealing the entire bill, he is expected to leave in the most bank-friendly provisions.

It looks like Romney should apply his criticism about teachers to himself. Why is he taking so much money from banks when he is campainging for the job of overseeing those same institutions?

Teachers and other unionized workers have to donate …