Public Campaign Action Fund - Fair Elections Now Act

OK, Now Will You Fix It?

Katie Schlieper — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 17:49:17 +0000

Kelly Williams and Laura MacCleery of the Brennan Center write up an extensive analysis for The Hill's Congress Blog of the role campaign cash played in engineering the current economic crisis we find ourselves in, and why Fair and Clean Elections policy must be enacted at the federal level to safeguard against history repeating itself.

Fair Elections in the House

Katie Schlieper — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:11:52 +0000

Another big day for Fair Elections in Congress. This morning Rep. John Larson (D-CT), Vice Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, and Rep. Walter Jones Jr. (R-NC) introduced the House version of the Fair Elections Now Act (HB 7022). This bill is the counterpart to the Fair Elections Now Act (2 1285) introduced in the Senate by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Arlen Specter (R-PA). This bicameral, bipartisan coalition in support of full public financing for congressional races represents a big step forward for our efforts.

Better Than You Think

Katie Schlieper — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:12:31 +0000

Bob Bernick Jr. acknowledges he feels like he's going out on a limb with this editorial in support of full public financing campaign. Bernick is writing in Utah's Deseret News, a paper that has covered its share of money in politics/lobbyists/corruption stories so this seems like a logical progression in their exploration of the topic, but Bernick has dim hopes about support in the state, and in Congress, for public financing.

News You Can Use

Katie Schlieper — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 20:08:03 +0000

The Calvin College chapter of Democracy Matters makes the news for their efforts to rally support behind the Fair Elections Now Act in the Senate, and public funding of elections as the state and federal level. Great work by the students, and a very positive story!

New Reform Venture

Katie Schlieper — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:43:58 +0000

Stanford law professor and noted copyright law expert Lawrence Lessig launched his new venture today, Change-Congress.org, designed to track the position of members of Congress on key reform issues, and put them on the record in support of things like the Fair Elections Now Act, which would publicly finance congressional campaigns. Read more about his project here.

Change for Congress

Katie Schlieper — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:49:38 +0000

Lawrence Lessig, a law professor at Stanford who has spent much of his career focused on copyright law is taking up the cause of cleaning up Congress. His new project, change-congress.org will track the positions of congressional candidates in this year's elections on a number of reform proposals and allow people to direct donations to candidates based on their support for these proposals.

Keep Your Caps On

Katie Schlieper — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:43:54 +0000

Laura MacCleery of the Brennan Center for Justice challenges a recent proposition in Roll Call to deal with the largely unregulated activities of independent "527" committees in elections by loosening campaign contributions limits, suggesting that a much better alternative is a robust full public financing program for federal elections.

About Speech

Katie Schlieper — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 20:44:36 +0000

Kentucky lawyer Edward Bonnie attacks the "free speech" arguments against public financing of elections in the Courier Journal op-ed. Arguing that Fair and Clean Elections programs promote, rather than limit, speech Bonnie talks up the promise of the Fair Elections Now Act introduced in the Senate while questioning whether we want to continue to have Sen. Mitch McConnell-style elections where money is the yardstick for a candidate's worth.

Ahead of the Curve

Katie Schlieper — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:12:24 +0000

A candidate hoping to challenge Sen. Saxby Chambliss in Georgia is making addressing our campaign finance problems a central focus of his campaign. He has decided to follow the parameters of the Fair Elections Now Act that was introduced in the Senate last year, but hasn't yet passed.

One Change

Katie Schlieper — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 20:24:42 +0000

If you hadn't heard, this presidential election is going to be about "change." Richard Cohen at the Washington Post says if you want to see real change it's time to fix the way we finance campaigns in our country and move to a full public financing system.