FCCP

Supporting nonpartisan civic engagement work is both necessary- and legal!  De-mystify the rules for funding voter registration, education and ballot campaigns with FCCP’s indispensible and updated guide for grantmakers.
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As he presided last month over his first field hearing in his home district, newly elected Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.) praised the viewpoints of the business owners testifying before him.

“The best ideas come from individuals who see and breathe the issues not just from Washington,” Lankford said at the hearing on transportation funding held in Oklahoma City, according to the online news service Tulsa Today. “We have plenty of highly skilled and capable officials and workers right here that know the best way forward.” read more >>

A handful of Members of Congress have among them received hundreds of complaints from the Federal Election Commission about inaccuracies in their campaign finance reports over the past several years, far beyond the average of most campaigns.

The FEC routinely sends letters to campaigns asking them to explain records that appear to be incorrect; since 2003, the agency wrote more than 18,000 letters to 3,300 candidates, according to a Roll Call study of campaign finance records.

But several Members of Congress have received more than their share of queries.read more >>

Madison, WI — With Senate Democrats still missing, the Wisconsin Assembly convened at 9 a.m. Friday to take up Governor Scott Walker's budget-repair bill as activists continue to fill the State Capitol, drinking coffee, banging drums and digging in for another daylong drama.read more >>

The right to vote is at the heart of representative democracy. Upholding that right requires that every eligible voter should have easy access to voting, every vote should be tallied accurately and no ineligible vote should be cast. Both limiting access to voting and allowing fraudulent votes undercut determination of the "consent of the governed."read more >>

Research has shown that nonpartisan Integrated Voter Engagement (IVE) is among the most effective ways to increase voter turnout. IVE groups train community members to reach out to their peers in a continuous, ongoing effort that increases the number of voters and leads to policy changes.read more >>

TALLAHASSEE — Two voter-approved constitutional amendments requiring the Legislature to draw political districts along nonpartisan standards could be jeopardized by one of Gov. Rick Scott's first acts.

Three days after Scott took office, the state quietly withdrew its request that the U.S. Justice Department approve Amendments 5 and 6 as required under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, effectively stalling their implementation just as a Republican-led lawsuit challenges their constitutionality.read more >>

Save the date! 
Monday, February 7, 2011
3:00 - 4:00pm ET / 12:00 - 1:00pm PT

Despite the priority of the state’s budget crisis, Illinois lawmakers managed to put a number of new laws on the books for the coming year, modifying pension rules for new state employees; how red-light cameras can be used, and punishment for children who send explict photos of other minors among dozens of other things.

Of all such laws scheduled to take effect with the start of 2011, few got more attention than one passed with much fanfare more than a year ago.read more >>

On January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court decided in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that limiting corporate spending on political campaigns was a violation of free speech rights. In the elections last month, we saw our first example of just what that ruling brings to the process -- but many questions about the long-term ramifications on democracy still remain.

Wait — how did that decision even happen?read more >>