In The News Resources

Charitable foundations and nonprofits are taking an unusually active role this year in trying to get an accurate census count. They say the people they serve have the most to benefit but are also among the least likely to participate.

Most Americans will get their 2010 census questionnaire sometime around March 15. Every 10 years, it's a challenge getting everyone to fill out their census forms and send them back to the government. read more >>

Last month, I testified before Congress about the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC, urging new protections for American shareholders. My plea was simple: copy the British.

What does the U.K. have that the U.S. lacks, but sorely needs? Not a queen, a parliament, or a home secretary, but a law passed in 2000 that requires British companies to seek authorization from their shareholders for corporate political spending. read more >>

Arizona is moving quickly to rewrite its laws in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allows corporations and labor unions to spend money directly on political campaigns, but a handful of states might be in legal limbo until after the 2010 elections.

More than a half-dozen states have major questions hanging over their campaign finance laws after the Supreme Court’s January ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which found that bans on direct spending by corporations and unions in political campaigns are unconstitutional.read more >>

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As the 2010 census nears its official start in March, nonprofit leaders are raising serious concerns about the government’s ability to achieve an accurate tally in this once-a-decade population count.

In response, foundations have poured tens of millions of dollars into nonprofit census efforts, but many nonprofit leaders say much more is needed.read more >>

Americans of both parties overwhelmingly oppose a Supreme Court ruling that allows corporations and unions to spend as much as they want on political campaigns, and most favor new limits on such spending, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Eight in 10 poll respondents say they oppose the high court's Jan. 21 decision to allow unfettered corporate political spending, with 65 percent "strongly" opposed. Nearly as many backed congressional action to curb the ruling, with 72 percent in favor of reinstating limits. read more >>

Some 100,000 people who were living in San Francisco on April 1, 2000, were not counted by that year’s Census workers, city officials have claimed.read more >>

Buoyed by polls showing the public is fed up with money influencing politics, Democrats are beginning to settle on options for curbing the Supreme Court's recent ruling that freed corporations and unions to enter the political fray with unlimited ads. read more >>

The Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission turns back the clock on almost a century's worth of campaign finance regulation. The court, under Chief Justice John Roberts, held for the first time that a corporation is entitled to the same First Amendment protections for its electoral spending as an individual citizen. Suddenly, the billions of dollars in corporate treasuries are available to advocate the election or defeat of candidates. read more >>

We noted with interest reports that subsidiaries of foreign corporations from across the globe have launched a lobbying campaign in Washington to protect their newfound power to influence American elections under the Citizens United case. About 160 of these U.S. subsidiaries of foreign-owned or controlled corporations are involved in a lobbying group trying to stop President Obama and Congress from enacting limits on their spending in political campaigns. Worse still, the lobbyist leading the effort refused to disclose all the companies involved in the lobbying campaign.read more >>

"Populism" is the most overused and misused word in the lexicon of commentary. But thanks to a reckless decision by Chief Justice John Roberts's Supreme Court and the greed of the nation's financial barons, we have reached a true populist moment in American politics.

The Supreme Court's 5-to-4 decision last week giving American corporations the right to unlimited political spending was an astonishing display of judicial arrogance, overreach and unjustified activism.read more >>

January 13, 2010

As Supreme Court Weighs Landmark Case, Wealthy GOP Donors Bankroll Attack on Campaign Finance Law

The hotly anticipated Supreme Court case that could open the door to a flood of corporate money in political campaigns represents the latest thrust in a patient, carefully orchestrated bid to use legal challenges to undo the restrictions passed by Congress.read more >>

January 4, 2010

The nation’s hard times are proving to be boom times for the lobbying industry in Washington. Lobbyists are expected to easily break their record of $3.3 billion in annual business, raising an inevitable question: How much more in special-interest donations will be bagged by lawmakers as they are furiously lobbied on everything from health care reform to economic regulation? read more >>

December 29, 2009

The Census Bureau gave political junkies a gift last week with the release of its latest population estimates, data that give very good indications of which states are set to gain congressional seats and which will lose them in the 2011 redistricting process.

According to Polidata projections (the best in the business), eight states are positioned to gain one or more seats in the remapping and 10 states are slated to lose a seat or more.read more >>

December 24, 2009

With the 2010 decennial census bearing down on us, the time for congressional reapportionment is right around the corner.

And, as The Times’s Damien Cave and others have reported, if the data the Census Bureau released this week is any indication, recent trends in how seats are allocated in the House of Representatives will continue this go-round.read more >>

December 8, 2009

At a hearing last week, the House census subcommittee highlighted outreach and promotion activities for the 2010 count. The focus wasn’t on the Census Bureau’s extensive communications program but on grassroots organizations, state and local governments, and businesses – sectors that are operating in what I call a “parallel universe” to help ensure an inclusive count in all communities. read more >>

In a nation where large financial interests already dominate public policy, the Supreme Court is likely to issue a ruling soon that will make it easier for businesses and labor unions to spend money to engage in partisan political activity.

That action would widen a gulf between nonprofit groups and businesses and could further seriously diminish charities' and foundations' influence, relevance, and clout in shaping solutions to the nation's problems.read more >>

November 5, 2009

The District of Columbia, not commonly associated with innovative government, showed itself to be a real leader today with passage of far-reaching election reform legislation. The DC Council's vote today for the Omnibus Election Reform Act puts the District in the lead of states and localities with progressive election administration.read more >>

November 4, 2009

Advice to readers about the coming orgy of analysis about the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial elections: Ignore it. Disquisitions on The Meaning of It All for President Obama or the 2009 results as a harbinger for Congress in 2010 have scant basis in reality.

Over-interpreting election results is an occupational hazard for political reporters. This problem is particularly acute in the year after a presidential contest, when we are suffering from a bad case of electoral withdrawal.read more >>

November 3, 2009

Linda Graham helped register voters like Florence Dziamniski in 2008. Here, Dziamniski fills out a voter registration form outside a senior citizens home in Clairton, Pa.

In this lull between major elections, advisers from recent Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns have joined together to try to come up with a better way to register voters. read more >>

November 1, 2009

SEATTLE — At a time when voters in many states are using petitions to qualify ballot measures on issues from gay rights to property rights, a legal dispute over the identity of 138,000 petition signers here is raising new questions about privacy, free speech and elections in the Internet age.read more >>

October 29, 2009

The nation’s largest voting machine manufacturer, Election Systems & Software, announced last month that it was buying the United States voting machine division of Diebold, its main competitor. The sale could mean that nearly 70 percent of the nation’s voting precincts would be served by a single corporation. That raises serious antitrust questions and serious concerns about the vulnerability of future elections.read more >>

Tuesday, October 27

Princeton, N.J. – How would you feel if you knew that there was just one 911 operator in charge of answering and directing all the calls in your county? And that it had been this way for multiple decades, despite the fact that the population there has been steadily increasing over the years?

No matter how capable the operator may be, unless more operators were added to take the calls, the effectiveness of the whole 911 system could be distorted. This is akin to what's happening with the US government and Congress.read more >>

Senators offer state opt-out
Pelosi says House has nearly enough votes

House Democrats are coalescing around an $871 billion health-care package that would create a government-run insurance plan to help millions of Americans afford coverage, raise taxes on the nation's richest families and impose an array of new regulations on private insurers, in part by stripping the industry of its long-standing exemption from federal antitrust laws. read more >>