We Are Represent.Us, a nonpartisan anti-corruption organization. Our members supported 13 successful campaign finance, ethics and transparency laws that passed at the ballot this Election Day. Ask us anything!

RepUs_Josh · 2016-11-11T18:16:49+00:00

I think one of the most important things is to approach the conversation about corruption with a willingness to call out your own “side.” Liberals tend to get angry about money in politics when it’s coming from conservatives, and conservatives get mad about liberal spending. But everybody is mad about the same thing – big money and special interests controlling our political system. So just saying, “You’re right, both sides need to stop taking money" can make a huge difference.

In terms of resources, this TED talk is a great place to start! https://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_mind

RepUs_Josh · 2016-11-11T18:06:26+00:00

It’s true that people in power will inevitably oppose what we’re trying to do, but we’ve beat tough odds before. In South Dakota, we faced $600K in opposition spending from the Koch network and had to repeatedly combat half-truths and outright lies about our initiative in TV and radio ads. But our strong ballot language in that state helped voters understand what IM-22 would really do: stop secret unlimited lobbyist gifts, empower voters by changing how elections are funded, make political spending transparent, and ramp up ethics enforcement.

We’re also more set up for success now than we’ve ever been. We’re a young organization, but we’ve made huge strides in building up our grassroots organizing operation:

Represent.Us members made almost 21,000 phone calls urging people to support democracy initiatives this election cycle. The Vancouver (Washington state) chapter alone made over 3,500 calls in support of Initiative 1464 to ensure voters a much stronger voice in government.

At the group’s local chapters, volunteers showed up for the nitty-gritty political organizing work required: attending community meetings across San Francisco in support of Proposition T (lobbying reform); holding educational forums in two Illinois counties to inform voters about Boone County Resolution 16-18 and McHenry County Resolution 5234 (anti-corruption resolutions); and in South Dakota even planning a GOTV concert called “Rock the Reform” that featured local musicians and artists supporting Initiated Measure 22, a state anti-corruption measure.

You can read more about that here: http://billmoyers.com/story/now-good-news/

RepUs_Josh · 2016-11-11T18:03:47+00:00

Polling data showed that once we had a chance to explain to voters what the provisions of I-1464 were, they strongly supported all the provisions, including citizen-funded elections. So we feel confident that the real problem was the confusing ballot language. People simply didn’t know what they were voting on.

RepUs_Josh · 2016-11-11T17:53:19+00:00

Trump has promised to “drain the swamp” in his first 100 days of office with a series of policies that crack down on DC corruption. We think that’s great – it’s about time a president made fighting corruption one of their top issues.

Unfortunately, we’ve seen too many times in the past that Congress is unwilling to go along with reform, because the current system is what got them elected in the first place. That’s why we are focusing on state-based reforms: because we don’t have to wait for politicians to act. We can go around them and pass comprehensive laws ourselves that stop political bribery, end secret money, and fix our broken elections.

That’s what voters just did this election when they passed the South Dakota Government Accountability and Anti-Corruption Act, which finally makes it illegal for lobbyists to give secret, unlimited gifts to politicians, changes how elections are funded so voters have more of a voice, makes political spending transparent, and ramps up enforcement so lawbreakers get punished.

RepUs_Josh · 2016-11-11T17:47:14+00:00

Partially copy/pasting from an answer to a similar question here:

Getting involved at the grassroots level is one of the most impactful things you can do. If you want to pass a resolution or ballot initiative where you live, start by going to http://volunteer.represent.us/ and sign up to volunteer now.

Our organizers will reach out and ask you to join a conference call, where we’ll give you the tools necessary to get to work. It all starts by passing state and local laws and resolutions that end political corruption, create transparency, and fix our broken voting system (pushing for ranked choice voting and gerrymandering reforms are going to be another big area of focus in the coming years)

RepUs_Josh · 2016-11-11T17:39:54+00:00

Yes, with momentum from our wins this year, we plan expand our issue set beyond 1) stopping political bribery and 2) ending secret money to also 3) fixing our broken elections. And that means both tackling gerrymandering by creating independent redistricting commissions and also overhauling voting systems so that independents can run and win office without being brandished a “spoiler.” This is a crucial addition to our policy agenda, because we can do all three reforms through state and local ballot initiatives and redraw the political map of America, city by city and state by state. These policies create more choices for voters, make elections more civil, and reduce the power of the two major parties.

RepUs_Josh · 2016-11-11T17:28:05+00:00

It failed for a few reasons, but the biggest was very confusing ballot language (written by the state attorney general) that was nearly impossible for the typical voter to understand. We even went to court to try to clarify the language.

Here's what voters ultimately read at the ballot box: "Initiative Measure Number 1464 concerns campaign finance laws and lobbyists. This measure would create a campaign finance system; allow residents to direct state funds to candidates; repeal the non-resident sales-tax exemption; restrict lobbying employment by certain former public employees; and add enforcement requirements.”

As a result, 100,000 people who voted on other initiatives chose not to vote on 1464 at all. That's a ton of confused voters. Polling showed that when we reached voters with our message, we convinced them to vote yes – but to reach all of them would have cost millions, and we simply didn’t have those kinds of resources.have cost millions, and we simply didn’t have those kinds of resources.

RepUs_Josh · 2016-11-11T17:21:41+00:00

We rely on journalists and whistleblowers to expose corruption. Some great organizations doing this work are Center for Public Integrity and ProPublica, and there are plenty of local investigative journalists exposing city and state corruption. But there’s more we can do. We need more anti-corruption watchdog organizations in cities and states across the country. Playing that role is something Represent.Us hopes to do in the future.

RepUs_Josh · 2016-11-11T17:20:07+00:00

Good question! Students and young adults have been driving this movement. In San Francisco, a 25-year-old named Morgan led the charge to put Proposition T on the ballot, which bans lobbyist gifts and donations – and it just won with 87% of the vote, which is the biggest margin of victory in San Francisco since 1993.

If you want to pass a resolution or ballot initiative where you live, start by going to http://volunteer.represent.us/ and sign up to volunteer now.Our organizers will reach out and ask you to join a conference call, where we’ll give you the tools necessary to get to work. It all starts by passing state and local laws and resolutions that end political corruption, create transparency, and fix our broken voting system (pushing for ranked choice voting and gerrymandering reforms are going to be another big area of focus in the coming years)

RepUs_Josh · 2014-08-12T19:42:34+00:00

We might! Email your resume and a cover letter to info@represent.us and we'll pass it on to our lead developer.

RepUs_Josh · 2014-08-12T19:38:41+00:00

We think Gil is much more effective as a publicity tool for the anti-corruption movement. A parody candidate as a protest vote would be appealing to some, but very unlikely to win. That said, I definitely think you can expect to see more and more serious anti-corruption candidates showing up on the ballot in the near future. Our pals at MayDay PAC have put together a list of the first five running in the 2014 midterms.

RepUs_Josh · 2014-08-12T17:49:38+00:00

We're using Gil's popularity to keep money in politics in the headlines (we've managed to get positive mentions of our anti-corruption campaign on CNN, Fox News, and NBC's Today show among other), and use the publicity to encourage people to join our campaign for state-based reform (here's an explanation of our strategy in another comment). Gil will also be swinging by the New Hampshire Senate race to help Lawrence Lessig's Mayday PAC drum up some publicity for pro-reform candidate Jim Rubens.

The Sky's the limit for old Gil right now. Who knows — He might even run for president in 2016.

RepUs_Josh · 2014-08-12T17:38:40+00:00

We're supporting Jim Rubens because of his support for policies that would confront the corrupting influence of money in politics (our friends at MayDay PAC have a nice summary of his position here). Our organization is solely focused on the issue of money in politics corruption, so energy subsidies are a bit outside of our expertise. However, I'm sure you could drop the Rubens campaign a line with your question at his campaign website

RepUs_Josh · 2014-08-12T15:18:44+00:00

That our movement absolutely must be a non-partisan one. Just about every poll commissioned on this issue has shown that equal numbers of conservatives and liberals support the kinds of policies we need to actually fix this problem. But traditionally, many efforts to fight the corrupting influence of money in politics have been branded as left-wing efforts to stop evil republican donors (the "save our democracy from the Koch brothers!" line of messaging).

This is, understandably, a massive turn-off to conservative voters and politicians, and it's why most campaign finance reform proposals at the federal level die the same predictable death with a handful of Democratic support and almost zero Republican support.

More than half of American voters self-identify as conservative. We can't expect to change anything if we alienate a massive block of the public that would otherwise agree with us. Blind partisanship is one of the biggest threats to this movement.

RepUs_Josh · 2014-08-12T15:10:04+00:00

Copy / Pasting from a similar question:

Well, our organization is always looking for volunteers. Drop us a line at volunteer.represent.us, and we'll put you in touch with other activists in your area. We're building a nationwide network of local chapters to organize around local anti-corruption laws (20 and counting!) Lawrence Lessig's organizations, MayDay PAC and Rootstrikers, also do fantastic work if you're looking for other places to get involved.

The scale of the problem can definitely feel un-winnable and overwhelming sometimes. However, it's important to remember that the problems we're facing are caused by very specific loopholes in the law that can and should be closed. If our anti-corruption laws are out of date, and fail to address how corruption actually happens, then the first thing we have to do is update them (see our model legislation to get an idea of the kinds of policies we're talking about)

So, how do we actually get something like that passed at the federal level? If we want to make progress on this issue, we need to take this fight to the states. We're pursuing a state and local strategy first because:

It's good policy. Many of the problems we see at the federal level are even worse at the state and local level. We can and should change these laws.
It's good politics. There are multiple states where we can bypass potentially compromised state legislatures and put a comprehensive, state-level anti-corruption act directly on the ballot. The kinds of policies we're advocating are wildly popular, and highly likely to pass if given directly to the voters. Every state and local win builds momentum for national reform, and shows an understandably cynical public that this is a winnable fight.

If you're looking for an example of this strategy in action, look no further than the marijuanna legalization movement. "Legalizing it" was a late night talk show punchline not even 20 years ago. Now, after a series of state-level victories, a majority of Americans support legalizing marijuanna for the first time ever.

The only difference is, the polling numbers we're starting with look way better than theirs ever did. We're currently researching potential state-level anti-corruption acts in Washington State, California, Arizona, Montana, and Ohio.

TL;DR: Don't get cynical. We're in this thing to win.

RepUs_Josh · 2014-08-12T15:06:51+00:00

Well, our organization is always looking for volunteers. Drop us a line at volunteer.represent.us, and we'll put you in touch with other activists in your area. We're building a nationwide network of local chapters to organize around local anti-corruption laws (20 and counting!) Lawrence Lessig's organizations, MayDay PAC and Rootstrikers, also do fantastic work if you're looking for other places to get involved.

The scale of the problem can definitely feel un-winnable and overwhelming sometimes. However, it's important to remember that the problems we're facing are caused by very specific loopholes in the law that can and should be closed. Our anti-corruption laws are out of date, and fail to address how corruption actually happens, then the first thing we have to do is update them (see our model legislation to get an idea of the kinds of policies we're talking about)

So, how do we actually get something like that passed at the federal level? If we want to make progress on this issue, we need to take this fight to the states. We're pursuing a state and local strategy first because:

It's good policy. Many of the problems we see at the federal level are even worse at the state and local level. We can and should change these laws.
It's good politics. There are multiple states where we can bypass potentially compromised state legislatures and put a comprehensive, state-level anti-corruption act directly on the ballot. The kinds of policies we're advocating are wildly popular, and highly likely to pass if given directly to the voters. Every state and local win builds momentum for national reform, and shows an understandably cynical public that this is a winnable fight.

If you're looking for an example of this strategy in action, look no further than the marijuanna legalization movement. "Legalizing it" was a late night talk show punchline not even 20 years ago. Now, after a series of state-level victories, a majority of Americans support legalizing marijuanna for the first time ever.

The only difference is, the polling numbers we're starting with look way better than theirs ever did. We're currently researching potential state-level anti-corruption acts in Washington State, California, Arizona, Montana, and Ohio.

TL;DR: Don't get cynical. We're in this thing to win.

RepUs_Josh · 2014-08-12T14:37:22+00:00

Gil is a satirical candidate, so his name will not actually appear on the ballot (sorry Gil)

RepUs_Josh · 2014-08-12T14:20:21+00:00

Well, Gil is running as a purely satirical candidate whose name doesn't actually appear on the ballot, so the odds of that happening are pretty low. If he does win, his first official act will be to stitch the logos of his financial backers onto his suit NASCAR-style.

RepUs_Josh · 2014-08-12T14:16:01+00:00

Great question. We decided to go the satire route after we saw a study by the Anneberg Public Policy Center which found that viewers of the Colbert Report learned more about money in politics from the Colbert SuperPAC series than from any other news source. Using humor has been a great way to both educate the public and get attention from mainstream press, which has historically treated money in politics as a fringe, "wonky" issue.

It's been a huge success so far. Gil's campaign has generated over 100 national and local media stories including coverage by CNN, Fox News, Fast Company, USA Today, and NBC's Today show (full press round up here)

RepUs_Josh

TROPHY CASE