Demos respectfully urges the Committee on the Judiciary to give swift approval to the Fair Elections Now Act. 

A Nelson hold is a wrestling move used to pin an opponent.  The Montana Supreme Court recently upheld its century old restrictions on corporate political spending, finding that the State had a compelling interest in protecting its state government from corruption, encouraging the full participation

Demos commends Connecticut for passing one of the strongest campaign-finance disclosure bills in the United States and recommends that the Governor promptly sign the bill into law. This is an important bill that will bring much-needed transparency to financing for political campaigns. 

Super PACs have fast become a favored tool for wealthy individuals and interests to drown out the voices of average citizens. 

Americans of all political backgrounds agree: there is way too much corporate money in politics. 

Outside spending organizations reported $1.11 billion in spending to the FEC through the final reporting deadline in the 2012 cycle. That’s already a 200% increase over total 2008 outside spending.

In 2012, just 61 large donors to Super PACs giving an average of $4.7 million each matched the $285.2 million in grassroots contributions from more than 1,425,500 small donors to the major party presidential candidates.

This report offers a comprehensive analysis of the fundraising and spending in federal races in the 2012 elections.

I thank the committee for this opportunity to present testimony on the IDC’s campaign finance reform proposal. This testimony is submitted on behalf of myself and Miles Rapoport, President of Demos and former Secretary of the State of Connecticut.

Democracy has at its heart a basic promise: citizens have an equal voice in deciding who represents them.