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Dec 9, 2024 | 
campaignlegal.org | Janel Forsythe |Danielle Caputo |Brendan Quinn
Voters have a right to know that government officials are working for the public, not wealthy special interests. For over 50 years, state ethics commissions have been critical to our democracy by ensuring officials adhere to high ethical standards to preserve public trust in government. Their role in implementing and enforcing lobbying, conflicts of interest, and campaign finance laws is essential for promoting transparency and accountability.
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Jul 11, 2024 | 
campaignlegal.org | Janel Forsythe |Aaron McKean
On July 8, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) needs to take action in response to a Campaign Legal Center (CLC) complaint filed against the Clinton presidential campaign and Correct the Record — a super PAC — for illegally coordinating their activities during the 2016 election.
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Jul 11, 2024 | 
campaignlegal.org | Janel Forsythe |Brendan Quinn
In the 2016 elections, the super PAC Correct The Record — notorious for its plans to “push back against” Hillary Clinton’s critics online — declared that it would coordinate its activities with the Hillary Clinton’s campaign, Hillary For America . CTR’s founder and chair, David Brock, even publicly stated that CTR was “basically under the thumb” of the campaign. Under federal campaign finance law an individual could only contribute $2,700 to Clinton’s campaign in 2016.
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Nov 3, 2023 | 
campaignlegal.org | Brendan Quinn |Janel Forsythe
In an op-ed for The Hill, Campaign Legal Center President and Founder Trevor Potter takes a closer look at the risks associated with artificial intelligence (AI) being used to create political communications and advertising as we head into the 2024 elections.
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Sep 27, 2023 | 
campaignlegal.org | Janel Forsythe
Democracy is at its strongest when diverse voices collaborate. This week, CLC officially launches a new live streaming event series called Campaign Legal Conversations. Campaign Legal Conversations is a forum featuring dialogues about American democracy. As we head into the 2024 presidential election, this series features change-makers, authors, and experts across the political landscape who will exchange ideas, foster mutual understanding, and find common ground.
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Jul 27, 2023 | 
campaignlegal.org | Eric Kashdan |Janel Forsythe
A healthy democracy needs institutions that are free of corruption and safeguarded against abuses of power. Fulfilling these goals requires that we enhance checks and balances between our branches of government, promote transparency and accountability for officials entrusted with the public good, and protect our elections from improper interference by bad actors—both foreign and domestic.
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Jul 24, 2023 | 
campaignlegal.org | Janel Forsythe |Jo Deutsch
As 2024 presidential candidates look to build support for their respective campaigns among voters, “soft money” — or funds raised outside the scope of federal campaign finance laws — is already having a major impact on the race for the White House. Because soft money doesn’t comply with federal campaign finance laws, it undermines the crucial transparency and anticorruption goals of those laws.
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Jul 24, 2023 | 
campaignlegal.org | Janel Forsythe |Jo Deutsch
Every election cycle, wealthy special interests spend record-breaking amounts of money to influence elections. Transparency regarding the sources of that election spending is essential to our democracy because it enables voters to know who is spending money to influence their votes and allows them to fully evaluate the electoral messages that such spending produces. Straw donor schemes undermine this electoral transparency by circumventing the disclosure required by federal campaign finance laws.
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Jun 21, 2023 | 
campaignlegal.org | Danielle Caputo |Janel Forsythe
Yet another troubling example of why the Supreme Court needs stronger ethics rules and an internal enforcement mechanism for handling ethical violations has surfaced — this time by way of unreported travel gifts given to Justice Samuel Alito. In an extremely unusual move, Justice Alito published an op-ed to rebuff and get in front of the allegations, which raises more questions than answers.
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Apr 25, 2023 | 
campaignlegal.org | Janel Forsythe
Janel uses press relations and online content to elevate CLC’s reach and impact in these two major issue areas. Prior to this role, Janel was a communications consultant at UpShift Strategies who worked with a host of nonprofit and advocacy clients seeking to advance public policies. Janel also was the Social Media Editor for the Project On Government Oversight, which was a role that piqued her interest in government transparency and accountability.
