Summer Interns at Common Cause
On a rainy August morning in 2016, I had the opportunity to speak with the pair at Common Cause’s Boston office, just steps away from the entrance to the Massachusetts State House. Emil is a Junior at Skidmore College in New York; he studies Politics and French. Nathan is a sophomore at Brandeis University, outside of Boston, where he studies Politics and Economics. Both of them are Massachusetts natives, and speaking with the two gave me some insight into the experience of working in reforming electoral politics at the state level.
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From its founding in 1970 up until today, Common Cause has been an instrumental organization in the push for greater accountability and transparency in election processes. Money out of politics isn’t the only arena that Common Cause works in, but it is certainly a focus. At its inception, the organization was a key player in the landmark 1974 case that established contribution limits and disclosure requirements for elections (before being largely struck down two years later). Since then, it has been an unrelenting advocate on the state and national level of citizen-funded elections, firmer contribution disclosure, restoring caps on campaign contributions, and overturning Citizens United.
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This interview has been edited for clarity and succinctness.
-Bridget, Small Planet Intern
Money in politics is a problem on both sides of the aisle: people feel outraged because they’re not being represented... We say we’re the most modern democracy, and yet there are flaws wherever you look. Look at the 2000 presidential scandal where a Supreme Court decision decided our president. That’s what really got me into it... If someone gives you $2,000 and another person gives you $20, who are you going to make yourself more accessible to? You obviously can't prove that this $2000 makes you pass certain bills, or veto other bills, but you’re going to keep my interests in mind because, in the context of our current voting laws, you want to keep this donation in the next election cycle... it's a problem that has intersections with food justice, environmental justice, income inequality, almost every issue.
Approaching the issue of money in politics can be a bit daunting for those who have just gotten interested in the issues. Can you break it down for us? Why care about the influence of money in politics?
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I ended up working in electoral administration because this has become such a prominent issue, that it’s become hard to avoid... You know, it’s really hard to do anything without anything else legislatively when you keep seeing the role of money in politics, especially in an election year.
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You know, I hear a lot of people asking, “Why shouldn't businesses be able to contribute [money] if everyone else in some way is able to voice their opinions to their representatives?” I think it’s important to think about it like this: you get one vote for your representative, companies
get one vote for each representative in a sense: if
they want to donate money to their local
representative, and then to every other
representative they can. Your direct support in a
vote can only be given to one person, while
companies are able to force their opinion on an
entire legislature, all of the 50 governors, the entire
House, the entire Senate.
I began with research, trying to get familiar with the issues that Common Cause MA is pushing for this legislative session and those to come. I knew from the point that I got the internship that I would be working on a report on post-election audits, surveying election officials in states that already have election audits. This was part of the 2014 Election Modernization bill that was passed in the state. So we are trying to pull together some of the best practices for implementing post-election audits, asking town clerks: “how do you do this, how much does it cost, what advice do you have.” Now that we have responses, we’re writing up a report.
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We are having a press conference this Friday, which has been the biggest organizing experience I’ve had here. We’re giving a status report on the early voting survey, explaining how many states have pre-final plans for early voting, how many haven’t thought about it at all…so really educating and recommending standards for early voting systems.
Can you talk a little bit about what your work has looked like this summer?
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So, I’ve been focusing a lot on early voting and voting laws. There is a new voting law going into effect in October 2016 that allows people to vote eleven days in advance of an election day. We, alongside other interns, have spoken to 351 town clerks to get a sense of how they’re managing the change. I was also working on a project looking at how we can predict the number of people who will vote using early voting, which I then culminated in a report.
There are a lot of people, I think, who are just coming to understand the extent to which money influences elections on the local, state, and national level. What is your advice for people who want to get involved but don’t know how?
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To me, it seems like a lot of people our age think that the best way to enact change is to go to protests or to sign petitions... while it’s really great to see this activism, we also need to bring activists into more of the lobbyist kind of work. [We need to] get to the point where folks go into the building and talk to the people who are sitting behind the desks, not just stand outside, because they have to listen to you.
This happens to me, and I think to a lot of people my age, where they just get really annoyed that their sentiment isn’t being heard, when it really is, but there are just so many ways that it is being heard. There are so many bills that are currently sitting that will be voted on eventually, and most of them will die. So there are 10 different bills, and if support was put behind this one measure, then there might be some movement. Voicing your support for a general idea is fine, but it’s important in making real change to be able to say, “This is what we supported, this is what we want your vote to be, here is the impact.”
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Alongside that, I think we are also attacking change from the wrong perspective: you see people saying the president needs to enact change. How about your local elected official? Those are the people who are actually going to impact your day-to-day lives rather than the president. The president sets a general trend for the whole nation, but he’s not going to dictate where your budget spending is going at the local level.
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I agree; I don’t think a lot of people think about their local power. There is a lot of stuff going on in campaign finance in individual states that I don't think people notice because I think they are focused on the President and Congress.
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My advice is, ask people for opportunities, volunteer...don't have your heart set on law school. A lot of people think a law degree is necessary for this kind of work, when really it’s about making connections, being communicative. Unless you really want to litigate and do criminal law, environmental law, civil rights law…get out there. There are so many kinds of organizations that you can get involved with, and many of them are really open to having volunteers. So get your feet wet!