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Political Spending: Civic Engagement is Not a Threat to Democracy

January 1, 2018  •  By IFS Staff  •    •  

The First Amendment guarantees every American freedom of speech. That freedom includes the right to spend money on speech. Without money, a political group cannot buy ads, print fliers, organize protests, or hire staff. Short of shouting one’s opinions on a street corner, it takes money to spread a message. Recognizing this relationship, the Supreme Court has long prohibited the…

Why Outside Spending Is Overrated: Lessons from the 2014 Senate Elections

February 19, 2015   •  By Luke Wachob   •  

The Koch brothers and their network of wealthy conservative donors recently announced that they intend to spend almost $900 million on the 2016 elections. ...

2015 Proxy Season: The Relentless Targeting of Political Speech Continues

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January 29, 2015   •  By Joe Trotter   •  , , ,

The 2015 proxy season is underway and all indications suggest that it will be another record-breaking year for the number of proposals targeting companies ...

Fact versus Narrative

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December 15, 2014   •  By Luke Wachob   •  

We were pleased to see The New York Times recently acknowledge that campaign spending in the 2014 election cycle declined from spending in the ...

Campaign Finance 101: Money Doesn’t Buy Votes

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November 3, 2014   •  By Scott Blackburn   •  

Tomorrow is the midterm election, and, if tradition holds, Americans will be inundated Wednesday with countless newspaper stories indicating that this midterm is “the ...

Is "campaign finance reform" about good governance?

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October 7, 2014   •  By Brad Smith   •  

From a recent announcement about an upcoming appearance by FEC Vice-Chair Ann Ravel, co-hosted by The League of Women Voters and RepresentUs.org, two groups that advocate ...

CPA Set to Release 2014 Index

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September 23, 2014   •  By Joe Trotter   •  

The Center for Political Accountability (“CPA”), in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania’s Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research, is set to release its ...

New Wesleyan-CRP Report Suffers from Old Flaws

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September 9, 2014   •  By Luke Wachob   •  

The Wesleyan Media Project and the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) have a new report out on independent spending in 2014 Senate races. Unfortunately, ...

Money Still Doesn’t “Buy Elections”

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July 7, 2014   •  By Scott Blackburn   •  ,

Last Wednesday, The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart wrote a noteworthy piece criticizing former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich for his inane statements ...

Experts respond to “The New Soft Money”

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June 19, 2014   •  By Luke Wachob   •  

Wednesday, as part of George Washington University’s Political Law Studies Initiative, a panel of campaign finance and election law experts met to discuss a ...

“New Soft Money,” Same Old Arguments

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June 18, 2014   •  By Scott Blackburn   •  

On Wednesday morning, Law Professor Daniel Tokaji and Graduate Research Fellow Renata Strause, both of Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, unveiled their ...

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