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election 2021
FEC Sued for 'Failing to Protect Georgia Voters' From Illegal Campaign Activity
"Georgia voters need reassurance that their rights to vote will always be respected and that our federal institutions won't neglect their duties to enforce the law," said one activist, noting the midterms.
Oct 11, 2022
With less than a month before the U.S. midterm elections, a watchdog group on Monday sued the federal regulatory agency responsible for enforcing campaign finance law over "failing to protect Georgia voters."
"This is yet another example of the FEC refusing to enforce our nation's campaign finance laws."
The Campaign Legal Center Action (CLCA) filed suit against the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of Common Cause Georgia.
The lawsuit follows the FEC's three GOP commissioners dismissing a March 2021 complaint from CLCA and Common Cause Georgia alleging illegal coordination between the nonprofit True the Vote--founded by Catherine Engelbrecht, who's known for spreading voter fraud conspiracy theories--and the state Republican Party during the 2021 U.S. Senate runoff.
"The FEC's dismissal of this administrative complaint was based on critical errors of law and cannot be sustained," argued Megan McAllen, director of campaign finance litigation at CLCA, in a Tuesday statement. "This is yet another example of the FEC refusing to enforce our nation's campaign finance laws even in the face of significant evidence the law was violated."
"Failing to hold political actors accountable for their abuses of campaign finance law does immense damage to the anti-corruption and transparency objectives that those laws were designed to serve," she continued. "We urge the court to recognize that this dismissal was contrary to law and send the case back to the FEC so the agency can do its job."
\u201cFEC lawyers found reason to believe the Georgia GOP failed to disclose the services as in-kind contributions, in violation of federal campaign finance law https://t.co/7XZl4f3O5B\u201d— Isaac Stanley-Becker (@Isaac Stanley-Becker) 1663196071
FEC Chairman Allen Dickerson, along with Commissioners Sean Cooksey and Trey Trainor, blocked an investigation into the allegations against True the Vote and the Georgia Republican Party.
Dickerson and Trainor said in a statement explaining their decision that True the Vote's "election integrity initiatives were equally available to all" and evidence shows the group "was pursuing these initiatives--and would have continued to do so--regardless of Engelbrecht's meeting with the Georgia GOP."
Referencing True the Vote's post-meeting public comments about partnering with the Georgia Republican Party to "ensure that the law is upheld and law-abiding voters have their voices heard," Dickerson and Trainor claimed the language "had a colloquial and not a legal significance" and there is nothing to suggest the group "undertook any of its activities 'in cooperation, consultation, or concert with, or at the request or suggestion of' the Georgia GOP."
As Insiderreported last month:
The FEC's nonpartisan legal office reached a markedly different conclusion.
In a 56-page report recommending an investigation, the FEC general counsel pointed to past statements in which Engelbrecht said True the Vote's efforts were intended to "assist with the Senate runoff election process" and were motivated by "what happened in November," an apparent reference to the 2020 presidential election.
"True the Vote's efforts were undertaken in partnership with the Georgia GOP, a committee whose fundamental purpose is to help Republicans win elections in Georgia, and it appears that a goal of these particular efforts was to influence the election by challenging absentee voter registrations," the FEC general counsel's office said.
Insider noted that "representatives from True the Vote did not immediately respond to requests for comment."
Common Cause Georgia executive director Aunna Dennis said Tuesday that "we were pleased that the FEC's nonpartisan Office of General Counsel agreed that there was reason to believe violations occurred."
"The FEC's three Republican commissioners rejected that recommendation, however, and failed to stand up for hundreds of thousands of Georgia voters by letting True the Vote off the hook for their illegal attempts to undermine people's votes in 2021," she asserted.
Dennis added that "we have another important election just weeks away and Georgia voters need reassurance that their rights to vote will always be respected and that our federal institutions won't neglect their duties to enforce the law."
The Democratic candidates, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, won Georgia's U.S. Senate seats in 2021, giving their party narrow control of the chamber. Warnock is up for reelection this year and is locked in a tight race against his scandal-plagued GOP opponent, Herschel Walker.
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Major Police Overhaul Goes Down in Minneapolis, But Austin and Cleveland Advocates Notch Wins
"It's a long road to liberation and our journey doesn't begin or end with Question 2," said one campaign group in Minneapolis.
Nov 03, 2021
Advocates of a push to amend Minneapolis' city charter and replace the city's police department with a "public health-oriented" Department of Public Safety were undeterred from their fight for far-reaching reform on Wednesday after their proposal failed to win a majority of voters' support, while activists in other U.S. cities celebrated victories against powerful law enforcement structures.
"Regardless of tonight's outcome, there's broad agreement that Minneapolis residents want more tools for public safety. There's also consensus that the status quo is not an option."
The grassroots group Black Visions Collective applauded the "historic" Yes on 2 campaign, which helped push nearly 44% of Minneapolis voters to support Question 2 after launching a petition to demand the question be included on the ballot.
"Despite an aggressive oppositional campaign, resourced by the Police Federation, corporate-backed white liberals like Jacob Frey and conservative black elites, the people of Minneapolis fought for and won the chance to take back our power," said Black Visions Collective. "It's a long road to liberation and our journey doesn't begin or end with Question 2."
"Passing legislation or electing candidates isn't our only measure of success," the group continued. "Our people reclaiming their ability to govern is a victory. Our people reclaiming their ability to name safety is a victory. Our people committing to moving toward a world beyond police is a victory."
Garnering the support of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, the ACLU, and national grassroots organization People's Action, the Yes on 2 campaign pushed to end minimum police staffing numbers for Minneapolis and to give the City Council oversight over a proposed Department of Public Safety. According to the language on the ballot, the department's public health-focused staff "could include licensed peace officers (police officers), if necessary."
"You actually can staff the department the way that meets the needs of the people," campaign spokesperson JaNae Bates told NPR in October. "We wanted to really be centered and focused on the safety of human beings."
Proponents of bold reforms to policing applauded the campaign for the traction it managed to gain in the city.
\u201cOver 40% of voters saying yes this city needs to do something different with policing isn't a loss. Folks are fighting big influence and deep pockets. It takes time to take down a juggernaut. And the status quo will fight hard to protect itself.\u201d— singing the body electric (@singing the body electric) 1635905252
"In the dead of winter, organizers collected 22,000 signatures from across the city to put this amendment on the ballot," said People's Action Movement Politics director Brooke Adams and TakeAction Minnesota executive director Elianne Farhat. "Black organizers and activists have worked toward this for years before 2020, and the work for a better future where everyone can feel safe in their communities will continue."
"Regardless of tonight's outcome, there's broad agreement that Minneapolis residents want more tools for public safety," added Adams and Farhat. "There's also consensus that the status quo is not an option."
Radley Balko, author of "Rise of the Warrior Cop" and a Washington Post columnist, called the level of support campaigners garnered for a "radical reorganization" of policing in Minneapolis "pretty remarkable."
The demand for an end to the status quo regarding policing was evident in a number of other cities including Austin, where voters overwhelmingly rejected a measure to hire hundreds more police officers--which would have required major budget cuts in other areas including firefighting, emergency health services, and libraries, according to opponents.
"It's past time we as a society reimagine the role of police."
Sixty-eight percent of Austin voters rejected Proposition A, which was pushed by Save Austin Now, a group co-founded by the Travis County Republican Party chair. The group raised $1.7 million in its effort to add to the city's 1,600-strong police force.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler, a Democrat, said the election reaffirmed "our community's belief that public safety for all requires a comprehensive system that includes properly staffing our police, but also our fire, EMS, and mental health responses as well."
"Austin's culture and values were on the ballot tonight," Adler said on Election Night. "At our core, we are an innovative, caring, and creative community."
With the corporate media widely reporting that police reform was rejected in Minneapolis, ACLU deputy national political director Udi Ofer predicted that Proposition A's defeat in Austin--by a wider margin--would receive little national attention.
Voters in Cleveland, Ohio also made clear their demand for more police accountability, approving a plan to establish a Civilian Police Review Board that would investigate reports of police misconduct. The proposal, known as Issue 24, passed by a margin of 59% to 41%.
The measure was endorsed by groups including Black Lives Matter Cleveland and the Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus, as well as Cleveland Mayor-elect Justin Bibb, a Democrat who won his election Tuesday night.
"We can't keep making this a false choice between good and effective law enforcement and police accountability," Bibb told local news outlet 3News. "We can do both. I believe trust is the biggest thing to do to make sure we have safety and security and residents trust police. Without it, you don't get safety."
Jeff Follmer, president of the local police union, accused Cleveland voters of approving a "vengeful" initiative that would "be the downfall of Cleveland." Issue 24 was proposed months after the U.S. Department of Justice declined to prosecute Cleveland officers in the police shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014.
"We are grateful for the generosity, courage, and leadership that the directly impacted families have shown in heralding this historic change for Cleveland," said the ACLU of Ohio. "It's past time we as a society reimagine the role of police."
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'When We Organize, We Win': Ocasio-Cortez Joins India Walton at Rally in Buffalo
The two progressives joined striking hospital workers on the picket line at Mercy Hospital after the early voting rally.
Oct 23, 2021
A line outside Town Ballroom in Buffalo, New York on Saturday stretched all the way down a city block and around the corner as residents arrived for an early voting rally hosted by Democratic candidate for mayor India Walton, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and other progressive leaders.
Early voting began at noon in the city's mayoral race, which has gained national attention following the victory of Walton, a democratic socialist, in the June primary.
\u201cThere is a huge line for this @AOC \u2066@Indiawaltonbflo\u2069 event at Town Ballroom. The line is down the street and around the corner.\u201d— Ryan Whalen (@Ryan Whalen) 1635001629
Ocasio-Cortez urged supporters in the crowded theater to commit to text-banking, phone-banking, and bringing other voters to the polls with them, saying that victories like Walton's are what helps to make the passage of bold policy proposals possible at the national level.
"When people say universal child care's not possible, guaranteed healthcare is not possible... They say post-industrial cities cannot do that anymore, they don't want to do that anymore... Buffalo is taking that excuse away."
"The only reason that the Democratic Party in Washington has even believed and felt and started rallying around universal child care in the United States is because a city did it first," Ocasio-Cortez said. "New York City, we came out and we said we're going to have universal pre-K... But it's not good enough for us to just have it in New York City."
As mayor, Ocasio-Cortez said, Walton will secure far-reaching, universal policies to benefit lower- and middle-class Buffalonians--priorities which Brown has dismissed as "radical" and which the corporate media has said since the congresswoman's own surprise victory in 2018 would not win over voters in Midwestern and Rust Belt cities like Buffalo.
"We're taking away all the excuses," said Ocasio-Cortez. "When people say universal child care's not possible, guaranteed healthcare is not possible, the labor movement is too anemic and it will never be what it once was... They say post-industrial cities cannot do that anymore, they don't want to do that anymore... Buffalo is taking that excuse away."
Walton ran in the primary against incumbent Mayor Byron Brown, a Democrat with close ties to real estate developers in Buffalo who refused to debate his challenger and has since launched a write-in campaign which has had significant support from the right.
The congresswoman noted that in addition to Walton's progressive campaign--centered on providing affordable housing, establishing Buffalo as a sanctuary city, developing a climate action plan for the city, and other initiatives to promote the wellbeing of lower- and middle-class residents--Buffalo is currently home to two of the major workers' rights actions that are energizing the labor movement across the country.
Starbucks employees in the Buffalo area are pushing to establish the coffee chain's first union, while hospital workers represented by Communications Workers of America (CWA) have been on strike in the city since the beginning of October.
Walton and Ocasio-Cortez joined the CWA workers on the picket line following Saturday's rally.
\u201cExcited to accompany \u2066@AOC\u2069 to the \u2066@CWAUnion\u2069 picket line at Mercy Hospital.\n\nAs she says, if management can\u2019t guarantee safe staffing ratios because there\u2019s a \u201cshortage\u201d of Registered Nurses and healthcare workers, then supply-and-demand dictates:\n\nPay better wages!\u201d— Wanderlust (@Wanderlust) 1635016442
In recent days, Walton has won endorsements from New York Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who replaced Andrew Cuomo, a close ally of Brown's, has so far not endorsed either candidate.
On Saturday, The Buffalo News reported that under the Brown administration, the city's urban renewal agency has given $20 million in public funds to the mayor's contributors as well as awarding exclusive development rights to some of his donors, without going through a public bidding process.
"This is corruption at its finest," said Walton on social media. "Federal money meant to serve our community has gone to line the mayor's pockets. We cannot afford another four years of corruption at City Hall."
To the crowd at the early voting rally, Walton said, "When we organize, we win."
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