Download the results from Ipsos here, and our toplines and analysis here. Americans believe reducing the influence of money in politics is one of the top five most important issues facing the country ahead of the November elections, according to a new Issue One-Ipsos national poll. The results suggest there is a disconnect between the public’s priorities and their elected officials’
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Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court decided McDonnell v. United States, an important corruption case involving the former Governor of Virginia. It’s easy to get lost in the news coverage, so here’s Issue One’s guide to what’s worth reading: Our coverage of the case is two-fold. We wrote an explainer of the case, updated yesterday with the decision. We also issued a statement
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By limiting the type of conduct subject to court trial to a range of “official acts” that only captures the clearest examples of corrupt politics, the Supreme Court’s decision in McDonnell v. United States opens the door to a cascade of questionable deals between elected officials and special interests. While a functioning democracy must involve communication between constituents and their
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*Updated – June 27, 2016* The 2016 election will be remembered for many things, but particularly for the widespread appeal of the calls to clean up Washington made by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Donald Trump. The Supreme Court, too, has felt renewed attention on its decisions following a recent string of major campaign finance and money-in-politics cases, most prominently
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Our democracy is facing a threat from 501(c) organizations that receive foreign donations and redirect them to political campaigns. Fortunately, Reps. Derek Kilmer (D-WA) and Richard Hanna (R-NY) just introduced the Election Protection & Integrity Certification Act, or the EPIC Act. The bipartisan bill establishes common-sense disclosure requirements to safeguard against the influence of foreign money in our elections. While
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Is it just us, or is dark money getting even darker? On Tuesday, the House passed H.R. 5053, the Preventing IRS Abuse and Protecting Free Speech Act. The bill forbids the IRS from requiring tax-exempt organizations to disclose their contributors in annual reports. It was painted by its sponsor, Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL), as a way to prevent the IRS
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Say “catfish” in a seafood restaurant and you’ll be sure to get a nice plate of filling protein. But say “catfish” in Washington and you’re more likely to tick someone off. That’s because here, catfish are embroiled in a political mess, and the only way to understand the controversy is to follow the money. The catfish situation is an unbelievably
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Watch out: Congress cares about ethics! Well, today at least. A coalition of a dozen watchdog organizations, led by the Campaign Legal Center and including Issue One, rallied quickly to defend the Office of Congressional Ethics following a proposed cut to the agency’s budget. This was the second time New Mexico Republican Representative Steve Pearce targeted the Office since it
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Republicans and Democrats agree on very little, but you’ll hear both parties decry government waste, fraud and abuse on the campaign trail. So where did Congress first look to save money? Their own Office of Congressional Ethics that holds members, officers and their staff accountable to taxpayers. Even worse, Congress approved spending nearly as much to study monkeys on treadmills ($1
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New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, once a champion for money-in-politics reform, has been caught red-handed. The New York Daily News has acquired a spreadsheet from the mayor’s administration with a detailed list of potential appointments to city committees and boards—and it’s chock full of de Blasio’s donors. The list is littered with donors to de Blasio’s 2013 campaign,
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