Issue One is an American nonprofit organization that seeks to reduce the role of money in politics. It aims to increase public awareness of what it views as problems within the present campaign finance system, and to reduce the influence of money in politics through enactment of campaign finance reform.
Formation
Issue One was formed in October 2014 through the merger of two campaign finance reform organizations: Americans for Campaign Reform and Fund for the Republic.
Americans for Campaign Reform, which was formed in 2003, had been focused on issues related to campaigns and elections, including pushing for public funding for federal and state elections. Fund for the Republic, which was formed in 2012, aimed to remove the use of big money and dark money in American politics. Issue One combined these initiatives.
Organization
Activities
Issue One's stated mission is "fighting to protect U.S. elections, lessen political polarization, limit the influence of big money over politics, and improve the ability of Congress to solve problems." The organization raises awareness about these issues, advocates for legislation and federal action, and produces research and analysis related to key issues.
ReFormers Caucus
In 2015, Issue One launched the ReFormers Caucus, a bipartisan group of former lawmakers advocating for campaign finance reform. The caucus initially included more than 100 former officeholders, including former Senate Majority Leader
Tom Daschle
Thomas Andrew Daschle ( ; born December 9, 1947) is an American politician and lobbyist who represented South Dakota in the United States Senate from 1987 to 2005. A member of the Democratic Party, he led the Senate Democratic Caucus during the ...
, former Utah governor Jon Huntsman, and former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. By 2019, that number had expanded to more than 200 members.
The ReFormers Caucus has proposed increasing civic participation, passing laws that define and regulate the role of money in federal elections and "boosting small donations to campaigns, finding ways to restrict political contributions from lobbyists and unmasking secret contributions made to tax-exempt groups that are active in politics."Former lawmakers join campaign-finance fight ; ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...
''; Fredreka Schouten; October 28, 2015
Congressional pay
A January 2022 report from Issue One titled "Fair Pay: Why Congress Needs to Invest in Junior Staff" found that one in eight congressional staffers in Washington, DC, were not paid a living wage. The report showed that entry-level staff, in particular, were earning 30 percent less than the national average salary, and recommended a salary floor for all Hill staffers. In April 2022, the Congressional Hispanic Staff Association published an open letter to both chambers of Congress asking for immediate salary increases for staff, citing Issue One's report on the issue.
Election disinformation and voting rights
In 2020, Issue One launched the National Council on Election Integrity to counter
disinformation
Disinformation is misleading content deliberately spread to deceive people, or to secure economic or political gain and which may cause public harm. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic dece ...
about the
2020 United States presidential election
United States presidential election, Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 3, 2020. The Democratic Party (United States), Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and California junior senator Kamala H ...
and ensure a peaceful transfer of power. The council was bipartisan, with members including former Democratic National Committee chair
Donna Brazile
Donna Lease Brazile ( ; born December 15, 1959) is an American political strategist, campaign manager, and political analyst who served twice as acting Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). She is currently an ABC News contributor, ...
, former Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright
Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright (born Marie Jana Körbelová, later Korbelová; May 15, 1937 – March 23, 2022) was an American diplomat and political science, political scientist who served as the 64th United States Secretary of State, United S ...
, former Senator and Director of National Intelligence
Dan Coats
Daniel Ray Coats (born May 16, 1943) is an American politician, attorney, and diplomat. From 2017 to 2019, he served as the Director of National Intelligence in the Trump administration. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a Unite ...
, former Senate Majority Leader
Bill Frist
William Harrison Frist (born February 22, 1952) is an American physician, businessman, conservationist and policymaker who served as a United States Senator from Tennessee from 1995 to 2007. A member of the Republican Party, he also served as ...
, and two former Defense Secretaries, Republican
Chuck Hagel
Charles Timothy Hagel ( ; born October 4, 1946)Leon Panetta.
In December 2020, the council spent $2 million on an ad urging a peaceful transition of power after
President Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 45th president from 2017 to 2021.
...
refused to concede the election. In 2021, the council launched a digital ad campaign
inside the Beltway
"Inside the Beltway" is an American idiom used to characterize matters of greater interest to U.S. federal government officials, contractors, lobbyists, and media personnel, than to their general public. The Capital Beltway (Interstate 495) i ...
to advocate for the establishment of a 9/11 Commission-style body to investigate the
January 6 United States Capitol attack
On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., was attacked by a mob of supporters of Donald Trump, President Donald Trump in an attempted self-coup,Multiple sources:
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. That same year, Issue One launched Truthtellers, an outgrowth of the group's Swamp Stories podcast featuring short video clips debunking false claims about the 2020 election.
In 2022, Issue One launched a "Faces of Democracy" campaign highlighting the concerns of election administrators and poll workers from across the United States, and requesting increased funding for election infrastructure and election-related threat monitoring, along with increased election privacy protections.
Council for Responsible Social Media
In October 2022, Issue One established the Council for Responsible Social Media to address bipartisan concerns with social media, including the impact for national security, and social media's effects on children and democratic discourse. The council includes former lawmakers such as former House majority leader
Dick Gephardt
Richard Andrew Gephardt (; born January 31, 1941) is an American attorney, lobbyist, and politician who represented in the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 2005. A member of the Democratic Party, he was House majority lead ...
and former lieutenant governor of Massachusetts Kerry Healey, the former Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen, and tech advocates including Tristan Harris.
Research
In 2015, Issue One joined with the Campaign Legal Center to publish Blueprints for Democracy, a report providing an overview of how campaign finance reforms have been implemented across the country, and recommending best practices for legislators and advocates attempting to enact change in their local communities.
In 2018, Issue One released a report titled "Dark Money Illuminated" that detailed political spending by nonprofit organizations that are not required to disclose their donors. The report found that three-quarters of the total
dark money
In politics, particularly the politics of the United States, dark money refers to spending to influence elections, public policy, and political discourse, where the source of the money is not disclosed to the public.
In the United States, ...
spending in elections from 2010 to 2016 came from only 15 groups, with the largest spender being the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Crossroads GPS, a nonprofit corporation that works in conjunction with American Crossroads, was the next highest spender. The report received coverage in ''USA Today'', ''Roll Call'', ''MarketWatch'', and other media outlets.
Issue One's subsequent analysis of dark money spending during the 2018 midterms found that liberal nonprofits had outspent conservative ones for the first time since 2010. “It’s no surprise that both Democrats and Republicans utilize whatever political vehicles are at hand,” Issue One CEO Nick Penniman told ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
''. “Both parties view it as an arms race.”
In 2020, analysis from Issue One and the Center for Responsive Politics showed that dark money groups had spent $996 million since the Citizens United Supreme Court decision.
In June 2020, Issue One released a report on potential foreign interference in U.S. elections, an issue the report described as a "national emergency" that Congress was not doing enough to prevent. Issue One also set up a website to study foreign threats.
In 2021, Issue One released a joint report with the Campaign Legal Center detailing the misuse of leadership PAC funds by both parties. That same year, it identified the political donors who had spent the most in the six election cycles since the Citizens United Supreme Court decision.
Donna Brazile
Donna Lease Brazile ( ; born December 15, 1959) is an American political strategist, campaign manager, and political analyst who served twice as acting Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). She is currently an ABC News contributor, ...
Dick Gephardt
Richard Andrew Gephardt (; born January 31, 1941) is an American attorney, lobbyist, and politician who represented in the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 2005. A member of the Democratic Party, he was House majority lead ...
,
Dan Glickman
Daniel Robert Glickman (born November 24, 1944) is an American politician, lawyer, lobbyist, and nonprofit leader. He served as the United States secretary of agriculture from 1995 until 2001 in the Clinton administration. He previously represen ...
, and
Tom Ridge
Thomas Joseph Ridge (born August 26, 1945) is an American politician and author who served in the Presidency of George W. Bush, George W. Bush administration as the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security from 2001 to 2003 and as the U ...
. The organization's advisory board is chaired by former U.S. Senators Alan K. Simpson and
Bill Bradley
William Warren Bradley (born July 28, 1943) is an American politician and former professional basketball player. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he was a United States Senate, United States senator from New ...
.
See also
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Campaign finance reform in the United States
Campaign finance reform in the United States has been a contentious political issue since the early days of the Union.
The most recent major federal law affecting campaign finance was the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) of 2002, also kno ...
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Mayday PAC
Mayday PAC is an American crowd-funded non-partisan Super PAC created by Harvard Law School professor and activist Lawrence Lessig. Its purpose is to help elect candidates to the Congress to pass campaign finance reform. It is notable for raisin ...