Campaign Legal Center Releases Report on Threats Facing State Ethics Commissions in 2025

Date
Issues
Ethics

Washington, D.C. — Campaign Legal Center (CLC) has released a new report, “Threat Assessment 2025: Risks and Challenges Facing State Ethics Commissions,” which takes a close look at the patterns of threats mounted against these agencies by lawmakers and others seeking to impede their mission, diminish their authority or dismantle the commission. Continuing a CLC analysis from previous years, this report offers considerations on how state commissions can best prepare for predicted threats to their work.

Our 2025 report covers findings on the latest trends of threats against state ethics commissions, identifying three major types of threats nationwide:

  • Enforcement power threats: attempts to limit the ability of ethics commissions to investigate or penalize violations of law within their jurisdiction;  
  • Subject matter jurisdiction threats: attempts to limit the kinds of laws ethics commissions can administer and enforce, leading to less transparency and oversight; and
  • Existential threats: attempts to completely strip ethics commissions of their power altogether.

“For over 50 years, state ethics commissions have functioned on an independent and nonpartisan basis to administer and enforce ethics laws. Ongoing threats against them not only risk undermining the mission of these entities, but also risk making our democracy less transparent and accountable to the public,” said Delaney Marsco, director of ethics at Campaign Legal Center. “Despite these challenges, state ethics commissions have the opportunity to enforce their authority by consistently and reliably performing their mission, which helps to uphold the integrity of government institutions nationwide.”

This report is the fifth in CLC’s annual report series designed to promote the successes of state and local government ethics offices, following 2021’s “Top Ten Transparency Upgrades for Ethics Commissions,” 2022’s “Top Ten Enforcement Upgrades for Ethics Commissions,” 2023’s “Top Ten Training Upgrades for Ethics Commissions" and last year’s "Threat Assessment 2024: Risks and Challenges Facing Ethics Commissions.”

Read CLC’s 2025 Ethics Commission Report

###

The nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center advances democracy through law. We safeguard the freedom to vote, defend voters’ right to know who is spending money to influence elections, and work to ensure public trust in our elected officials.

Learn more about CLC. Don't miss out on our latest resources: Subscribe to President Trevor Potter's newsletter on LinkedIn or email, tune in to the latest season of our award-winning podcast, Democracy Decoded, and join our livestreamed events.