CONTACT: Sarah Lee, Communications Director, 770.598.7961
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — CCP will take part in a forum tonight in New York City with pro-reform group ProPublica to discuss what they’re calling the rise of “dark money” in campaigns. CCP’s representative will try to counter this idea by presenting the fact that, for the most part, where and how people choose to give is not only already disclosed, but generally fairly easy to figure out and therefore neither “dark”, nor “secret”. Other panelists include:
Kim Barker, investigative reporter for ProPublica. Her groundbreaking “How Nonprofits Spend Millions on Elections and Call it Public Welfare” exposed the many ways in which 501(c)(4) groups mislead the IRS and Federal Election Commission (FEC) about their campaign activities.
Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). CREW works to hold politicians accountable and to require campaigns to disclose their donors and expenditures.
Nicholas Confessore, political reporter for the New York Times. He is a veteran reporter who has written for many different outlets and currently covers the 2012 presidential campaign with a focus on political fundraising and campaign finance issues.
The conversation will be moderated by author, journalist, professor and former NPR News & Notes host Farai Chideya.
CCP founder and Chairman Brad Smith took part in a radio panel this morning on Leonard Lopate’s show as a pre-cursor to tonight’s event. You can listen to that discussion here to get an idea of what may discussed at tonight’s panel. The panel will be live streamed here.
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