Campaign for Stronger Democracy

Welcome to the fourth edition of the Campaign for Stronger Democracy’s e-newsletter — a clearinghouse for news about the democracy reform community. The Campaign is a new coalition that is working to increase collaboration among democracy advocates.

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Five Things You Must Read

• Don’t Call Them Post-Racial: How Young People Actually Think About Race: This three part report from the Applied Research Center and Colorlines takes a look at the “millennial” generation in the United States (those born after 1980) and how they view race. Millennials make up the most racially and ethnically diverse generation in United States history, says the report, and they know that race plays a key role in their lives in education, politics, criminal justice, and other areas. The study also finds, however, that millennials are not monolithic in their thinking, comprising a varied view of racism in their lives.
• Supreme Court strikes down public financing provision: The Supreme Court ruled this week in McComish v. Bennett that a provision in Arizona’s campaign finance law that concerned “trigger funds” to publicly financed candidates was unconstitutional. This provision allowed for additional funds to be given to publicly financed candidates when their opponents raise above certain thresholds of money from private donors or outside groups. The Court, however, left public financing as a whole intact with the ruling, even while striking down this single provision.
• Fixing Congress: In a series of articles on fixing Congress, the Boston Review gathers opinions from many political commentators. The lead article, written by Representative Jim Cooper, breaks down some of the problems that he sees with Congress, including the influx of money in politics, and the changes that have ocurred since he first took office in the 1980s. Nick Nyhart of Public Campaign posts one of the responses to Rep. Cooper’s article, taking a closer look at the issue of money in politics.
• Will Obama, Issa and Warner Revolutionize Federal Spending Transparency?: The Project on Government Oversight looks at the recently introduced DATA act in the House and Senate, as well as President Obama’s executive order to create a new board to look at transparency issues. POGO does a run-down of some of the pros and cons of the DATA act, and offers some suggestions for how the legislation could be improved.
• Michael Copps, the FCC’s voice for media democracy: Katrina vanden Heuvel writes a profile of FCC commissioner Michael Copps for the Washington Post, including his historical role in the commission going back to his appointment, as well as his current battles in favor of strong net neutrality and his dissent, as a sitting commission member, to a report written and published by the FCC on the strength of modern press.

Upcoming Events

• July 8-10: Blogging While Brown, CA
• July 22-23: Frontiers of Democracy, MA
• July 22-25: National Conference on Media Literacy Education, PA
• July 23-26: National Council of La Raza Annual Conference, DC
• July 27-30: Alliance for Community Media Conference, AZ
• July 27-30: National Urban League Conference, MA
• September 15-23: National Conference on Citizenship, AZ
• September 23-25: Research Conference on Communication, Information and Internet Policy, VA
• October 6: Asian American Justice Center’s 20th Anniversary Celebration, DC
• October 13: Appleseed’s Annual Fall Gala, DC
• October 13: IP3 Awards and Roast, DC

HEADLINES

Democracy 2.0

• Personal Democracy Forum 2011 Video Collection (Sunlight Foundation)
• In Iceland, The Crowd Take a Shot at “We the People” (Fast Company)
• White House to Seek Input (Again): A few Basic Tips to Make It Work (Intellitics)
• Gartner Criticizes Cities’ Use of Social Media, Open Data (IT World Canada)

Electoral Reform and Voting Rights

• The End of the Election Assistance Commission? (Fair Vote)
• Political Fault Lines Emerging in the Redistricting Battle (ABC News)
• They Want to Make Voting Harder? (New York Times)
• Debunking Misinformation on Voter ID (Brennan Center)
• Senators urge DOJ to review photo ID laws (Rock the Vote)
• How to turn Republicans and Democrats into Americans (the Atlantic)

Judicial Reform

• Budget Cuts are Crippling Our Nation’s Courts (USA Today)
• Critic to Judge: “Pack Your Bags While You Can” (Gavel Grab)
• Restrictive Rules Announced for Federal Courts Camera Experiment (Legal Times)

Lobbying, Ethics and Campaign Finance Reform

• Citizens United Rules Staff at FEC (Roll Call)
• No More Target Money (Common Cause)
• FEC Asks Crossroads to Reveal Donors (National Journal)
• Clean Elections System Works (Bangor Daily News)

Media Reform and Internet Access

• Measuring the Gap in News and Information (Free Press)
• The Future of Public Radio (Media Access Project)
• The Three Worst Ideas in the FCC’s Future of Media Report (Free Press)
• Hispanics Rank High on Digital Divide (New York Times)

National, Community and Public Service

• 39th Anniversary of Title IX (Points of Light)
• Service as a Strategy (Servicenation)
• 2011 National Conference on Volunteering Ignites Social Entrepreneurship (Forbes)

Participation, Collaboration, and Civic Engagement

• Five Strategies to Revive Civic Communication (CIRCLE)
• Governor Signs Historic Citizens Initiative Review Bill Into Law (Healthy Democracy Oregon)
• Californians Brainstorm State’s Political Issues (SF Gate)
• Portsmouth Residents Use Study Circles to Give Input on City Budget (Everyday Democracy)
• On the Nature of Public Deliberation – A Message from the President of the Kettering Foundation (National Issues Forums)

Racial Justice, Civil Rights and Immigrant Civic Inclusion

• My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant (New York Times)
• Stop the ATT / T-Mobile merger (Color of Change)
• Civil Rights Groups Challenge Copy-Cat Immigration Law in South Carolina (Leadership Conference on Civil Rights)
• The Conspiracy to Steal the 2012 Election (Black Voice News)
• Sign up for July’s Democracy Exchange (Campaign for Stronger Democracy)

Transparency and Openness

• Save the Data 2012: The Fight for Data Transparency Begins (Sunlight Foundation)
• Wyden Successfully Kills Anti-Whistleblower Measure (Government Accountability Project)
• Oversight Committee Explores Transparency in Federal Spending (Tech President)

Youth Engagement and Civic Education

• Ask, Don’t Tell: Engaging Millennial Donors (Mobilize.org)
• Youth Say Race Still Matters, So What Are They Doing About It? (Colorlines)
• White House reaches out to youth vote with ’roundtables’ (McClatchy)

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