Facts on Common Cause

Based in Washington D.C. founded in 1970.

National membership of more than 300,000.

One of the largest voluntary membership organizations in the United States working on government accountability issues.

38 State Organizations.

Common Cause History

"Everybody's organized but the people. Now its the citizens' turn." --John Gardner, 1972 speech

Founded by John Gardner who served as the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in the Johnson administration and was an architect of

“Great Society.”

Highlights of Past Common Cause Accomplishments

1971: Helps pass the 26th Amendment, giving 18-year-olds the right to vote.

1974: Helps lobby Congress to end funding for the Vietnam War. 

1974: Leads efforts to pass presidential public financing.

1974-75: Helps pass Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and open meetings laws at federal, state and local levels.

1978: Led effort to pass the historic Ethics in Government Act of 1978, requiring financial disclosure for government officials and restricting the "revolving door" between

business and government.

Common Cause Today

To increase the diversity of voices and ownership in media, to make media more responsive to the needs of citizens in a democracy and to protect the editorial independence of public broadcasts.

To campaign reforms that make people and ideas more important than money.

To remove barriers to voting and to ensure that voting systems are accurate and accessible.

To increase participation in the political process.

Today– we focus on four main goals

Common Cause Campaign StyleStrategic Research

Legislative Advocacy

Media Outreach

Grassroots Organizing

Election Reform

Address the Problems Voters Face in Registration

 Expand Election Day

 Enforce Laws Prohibiting Voter Suppression/Intimidation

 Felony Re-Enfranchisement

Election Reform (continued)

Reduce Partisanship and Conflict of Interest in Election Administration

Fix, Replace, Test and Maintain Voting Machines

Poll Worker Training and Recruitment, Accessibility, and Voter Education

 ID Requirements and the Voter Databases  Develop Uniform Statewide Provisional Ballots

Standards  Increase federal, state, and local funding for

elections

Ethics and Accountability

Create an Independent Ethics Commission to investigate congressional ethics misconduct.

 Impose an effective gift and travel ban

Slow the revolving door Prohibit registered lobbyists

from acting as fundraisers and campaign treasurers for federal elected officials

Real-time reporting of lobbying contacts and real enforcement of disclosure rules

Government Accountability

A free society depends upon a high degree of mutual trust. The public will not give that trust to officials who are not seen to be impartially dedicated to the general public interest, nor will they give trust to those high in

government who violate the rule of law they ask citizens to obey at the expense of self-interest, or to those who

present government as the place where one feathers his own nest, [or] exchanges favors with friends and former

associates.

--Archibald Cox, Common Cause Chairman Emeritus

Government Accountability Issues

Ethics Watchdog  Improving Disclosure Open Meetings and Freedom of

Information ActFighting Government Secrecy   Protecting whistleblowers

Media and Democracy

Fighting Media Consolidation

Protecting Public Broadcasting

Holding the Media Accountable by Promoting Public Interest Obligations.

Developing and Advancing a Long Term Agenda for a more Democratic Media

FOX President Rupert Murdoch

Money in Politics

Bipartisan Campaign Act of 2002

Public Financing of Campaigns