Campaign Legal Center Inc

Campaign finance: the first amendment guarantees every american the right to participate fully in the political process. The dependence of political candidates on wealthy special interests is a serious flaw in our political system and makes elected officials responsive to their large donors rather than to the public. The tremendous power of special interest money in politics often drowns out the voice of everyday americans, threatens our first amendment freedoms, and erodes the foundations of our entire democracy. To restore fairness to our political system, this clc program advocates for passing and enforcing strong campaign finance reforms that help guarantee a democracy that is both representative of and responsive to the people. These reform solutions include placing reasonable limits on funding of campaigns, complete transparency of campaign spending and public financing of elections. Clc helps enact such policies at the state, local, and federal levels, and works to ensure that the federal election commission enforces current campaign finance laws. Clc also defends laws that promote the first amendment's guarantee that every american has the ability to participate in the democratic process.

Communications: clc's communication program supports the overall mission of clc and utilizes strategies to leverage and brand clc as a thought leader, educator and advocate. The communication program works across clc program teams to create and disseminate content, build program audiences, and seek partnership and collaboration on important public conversations. This includes supporting campaign legal conversations, which explores complicated issues in democracy, sharing stories of voters who have faced barriers to participating in the political process, and educating press, partners and donors about clc's litigation efforts.

Ethics: one of the hallmarks of a healthy democracy is public confidence in the integrity of democratic institutions. That public confidence is earned through the commitment of those in and working with government to uphold the principle that public service is a public trust. Federal, state, and local governments have a responsibility to enact and enforce clear ethical guidelines and laws. Only then, can public officials adequately navigate potential conflicts and be held accountable when they break the public's trust. This system is necessary to ensure a healthy democracy. This clc program proposes solutions for stronger ethics at all levels of government, and serves as a government watchdog, holding elected officials accountable for ethics violations.

Redistricting: democracy works best when our voting maps are fairly drawn on a nonpartisan basis to ensure that americans can participate equally in the election of their representatives. Unfortunately, incumbents often rig the system to benefit themselves, their party, and special interest supporters, manipulating voting maps to dictate the outcome of elections. Two sources of discrimination in voting maps are partisan gerrymandering and electoral systems that underrepresent people of color. The result is dysfunction, mistrust, and public policies that ignore the will of the people. This clc program advances and supports legal cases that address redistricting violations, works on the front lines in the fight for fair redistricting practices in the states, and continues to promote voters' rights to fair districts nationwide.

Policy: clc's policy program works to advance pro-democracy, pro-voter policy at the federal, state and local levels. Clc brings decades of policy and legal expertise to our work with government officials, civic organizations, and grassroots advocates. Clc is engaged through the entire life cycle of the law: developing policy, drafting legislation and ballot initiatives, and ensuring effective implementation through administrative advocacy. The policy program works across clc program teams to develop effective advocacy strategies and partnerships.

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