Editorial Note: This piece was first published as part of the Huffington Post's Shadow Convention discussion on money in politics and on my Huffington Post blog.
The growing influence of money in politics threatens to corrupt our representative form of government, where the people – through their votes – are supposed to make the decisions.
The League joined coalition partners in asking members of the U.S. House to honor new congressional ethics rules prohibiting Members from participating in parties at the national nominating conventions that are paid for by lobbyists or lobbying organizations and are held to “honor” the Members.
The League joined an amicus brief on an appeal to the DC Court of Appeals in the case of Van Hollen vs. FEC. The friend-of-the-court brief supports a lower court ruling that upheld strict disclosure requirements for the funding for electioneering communications.
Over the past two years and more, Leagues across the country have tirelessly and courageously stood up for voters in their state legislatures and in the courts. As a result, in many states, this organized assault on voting rights has been stopped or stalled. In fact, the Wisconsin League won another victory this week.
Twice this week, the U.S. Senate refused to allow full debate on the DISCLOSE Act, which would require complete disclosure of spending on big-money advertising in candidate elections. Huge sums of secret money are flooding into our elections and without full disclosure the voters won't know who is trying to buy influence.
Over two consecutive days, the U.S. Senate refused to allow full debate on the DISCLOSE Act, which would require complete disclosure of spending on big-money advertising in candidate elections.