Hours spent dialing for dollars are hours diverted away from lawmakers’ legislative and oversight responsibilities. We pour over campaign finance reports to track fundraising trends and raise awareness of the pressure that lawmakers face to raise funds for their reelection campaigns and political parties. These widely cited analyses help give a more complete picture of the vast sums of money flowing through our political system. For more about the practice of parties forcing members of Congress to raise astronomical amounts of cash in order to serve in powerful legislative positions, visit our Party Dues page.
Analysis
Co-authored by Daniel Hensel This year, residents of Georgia’s 6th Congressional District were bombarded with a seemingly never-ending cascade of political advertisements. But figuring out who was really behind this…
Analysis
Update (June 21, 9am ET): Republican Karen Handel won the special election in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District, making history as the state’s first Republican congresswoman. Here are more details as to…
Analysis
As people head to the polls today to vote in the race for the open seat in Montana’s sole congressional district, Issue One is looking at the money behind the…
Analysis
Editor’s note: The special election will head to a runoff on June 20. As people head to the polls today to vote in the race for the open seat in Georgia’s…
Op-eds
by Rep. Zach Wamp (R-TN), Issue One ReFormers Caucus Co-chair Members of Congress are getting an earful from constituents in town halls across the country about their passions and gripes…
Legislation & policy analysis
Late last week, Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) introduced two campaign finance-related bills: the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act (e-file bill) and the Sunlight for Unaccountable Non-profits (SUN) Act. Both were…
Analysis
It’s time to reset our congressional fundraising counter! In July 2016, we launched a counter presenting a rough running estimate of how much time members of Congress collectively spent raising…
Op-eds
This op-ed originally appeared in TIME. It is an under-appreciated small miracle that so many Americans are paying close attention to the presidential campaign. Some are predicting that the number…
Analysis
Since 2015, our elected leaders have had to spend hours fundraising, instead of doing their jobs. One of the biggest problems with our campaign finance system is that the…
Legislation & policy analysis
Congress finally passed an omnibus budget deal today, after tense negotiations that nearly resulted in another federal government shutdown. While neither Democrats nor Republicans were thrilled with the contents of…
