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Campaign Finance
Campaign Finance
The First Amendment guarantees every American the right to participate fully in the political process.
The dependence of political candidates on wealthy special interests is a serious flaw in our political system, and makes elected officials responsive to their large donors rather than to the public. The tremendous power of special interest money in politics often drowns out the voice of everyday Americans, threatens our First Amendment freedoms, and erodes the foundations of our entire democracy. To restore fairness to our political system, CLC advocates for passing and enforcing strong campaign finance reforms that help guarantee a democracy responsive to the people.
These reform solutions include placing reasonable limits on funding of campaigns, complete transparency of campaign spending and public financing of elections. CLC helps enact such policies at the state, local and federal levels, and works to ensure that the Federal Election Commission enforces current campaign finance laws. CLC also defends laws that promote the First Amendment’s guarantee that every American has the ability to participate in the democratic process.
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Campaign Finance Cases and Actions
CLC challenged the FEC’s delay in enforcing key provisions of federal campaign finance law, including the ban on “straw donors,” against SCYWSE, LLC, which gave a $150,000 contribution to a federal super PAC despite having no public history of any business or commercial activity.
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CLC sued the Federal Election Commission for its failure to enforce transparency laws, allowing large, anonymous donors to funnel millions of dollars into political activity through 45Committee, a dark money group. The FEC’s failure to act threatens transparency and public trust in our elections.
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Montana has strong transparency requirements for businesses that make political contributions and expenditures while seeking lucrative contracts with state government agencies. CLC is urging the court to uphold these requirements, which advance core First Amendment principles in promoting political transparency and prevent corruption in government contracting.
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Every eligible citizen should have a voice in our democracy, not just the wealthy few.
CLC Provides Guidance at the State and Local Level
CLC works on the ground in cities and states fighting for a better democracy. We serve as an expert resource to citizen organizations working to improve democracy in their own neighborhoods. CLC provides model legislation, model ballot initiatives and specific expert guidance to help ensure that local reform measures are effective and will stand up in the courts.
CLC Tackles Foreign Interference in U.S. Elections
Partisan disputes over whether foreign meddling in 2016 impacted election results are not productive. Rather, we must devote national resources to addressing the host of vulnerabilities that the 2016 election exposed, or they will be further exploited in elections to come. Congress and the Federal Election Commission should take steps now to protect our democratic process, such as requiring identification of online political advertisers and updating 40-year-old disclosure laws by passing the bipartisan Honest Ads Act.
CLC Poll Finds Voters Want Campaign Finance Laws Enforced
CLC commissioned two bipartisan polls of that confirm voters are deeply concerned about “corruption in the political system” and want the FEC to take a more active role in enforcing campaign finance laws.
CLC Watchdogs the White House
In July 2018, CLC uncovered how the Soviet-born associates of Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani laundered six-figure contributions to President Trump’s super PAC through a shell corporation. Our campaign finance complaint resulted in the October 2019 arrest of the two suspects.
Speak to one of CLC's legal experts