Voter Blog
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Sep10
Clips Round-up for 9/10/12
Barack Obama raised $114 million in August, beating Mitt Romney (who raised $111.6 million) for the first time since the creation of the joint RNC-Romney Victory fund.
Sep07Clips Round-up for 9/7/12
Paul Blumenthal at HuffPost had a great story yesterday on President Obama's promises and support for reform before the White House and what has happened since. "If anything, however, the opposite has happened. The four years of Obama's presidency have featured some of the biggest rollbacks of the campaign finance regulatory regime created in the wake of the Watergate scandal.
Sep06Clips Round-up for 9/6/12
Big news yesterday on the Democratic fundraising front: "Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel — a legendary fundraiser and political strategist before he won elected office — has dropped his honorary chairmanship of the Obama campaign to help raise big-dollar contributions, so that Democrats can compete with what is emerging as a clear GOP fundraising advantage this election
Sep05Sep05Clips round up for 9/5/2012
Campaign Finance/Fair Elections
The Nation: Change we can believe in, 2.0
Katrina vanden Heuvel on the president's talk of an amendment last week and its inclusion in the Democratic platform. National Journal.Sep04DNC's Good, Not Great Campaign Finance Reform Platform
The Democratic Party released their convention platform yesterday, calling for many important campaign finance reform measures.
From the platform:
Sep04Clips Round-up for 9/4/12
Aug30Clips round up for 8/30/2012
Yesterday during a reddit AMA, President Obama called for a constitutional amendment and reiterated his support for DISCLOSE and banning lobbyists from bundling contributions. As HuffPost points out, this isn't necessarily news--Jim Messina said Obama supported the amendment in February--but Obama bringing it up does add more weight.
Aug29Scott Walker and the Link Between the Gun Lobby’s Money and Results in Wisconsin
In 2004 and 2006, the Wisconsin legislature passed legislation to allow concealed carry of firearms and both times it was vetoed by Gov. Jim Doyle (D), to the ire of the National Rifle Association (NRA).
That changed with the election of Gov. Scott Walker (R), who wasted no time in pushing for concealed carry, getting the bill to his desk and signing it in July of his first year in office, 2011. Not only that, but in December of that year, Walker signed a law moving Wisconsin's laws closer to Florida's reckless Shoot First Law made famous by the Trayvon Martin case.
Aug29Pro-Gun Interests Fill Coffers of Pennsylvania Lawmakers
With the controversial Trayvon Martin shooting last spring and the series of mass shootings this summer, there’s been an increased focus on our country’s weak gun laws and efforts by groups like the NRA to obstruct any attempt to curb access to firearms.
The NRA and its allies, along with small arms manufacturers, spend big money in politics to make this happen—and Pennsylvania is no exception.