Democracy Happy Hour – Dec 2, 2020

Topic: Impact of Lobbying on Democracy. Fix Democracy First hosts a weekly Democracy Happy Hour on Wednesdays @ 5-6pm PT. Grab a drink and join us and  learn about the latest democracy efforts, challenges, solutions, as well upcoming events and actions.

Recording from Wednesday, Dec. 2nd, 2020:

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Actions, Events & Links:

• Becoming A Democracy: How We Can Fix the Electoral College, Gerrymandering, and Our Elections - Book event with author Kristin Eberhard – December 3rd @ 6 pm PT - https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_IaffwfZcTBKMWhDVzWJuYg‍
• Donate $35 or more to FDF and receive a FREE copy of Becoming a Democracy by Kristin Eberhard - https://www.fixdemocracyfirst.org/donate-book-fundraiser‍
• DFAD – Democracy Day 1 - https://declarationforamericandemocracy.org/‍
• Power to the People: How to Win Back Our Democracy – December 3rd @ 3 pm PT - Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/events/236002737958933/ - Register #: https://us02web.zoom.us/.../reg.../WN_kTnpSdzhRfusB_MzfUsVrA‍
• Yakima Voting Rights Community Forum – December 5th @ 10:30 am – https://www.facebook.com/events/377298376749819 - Register @: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_8PV8SD7gS96b_ZmN31SHOg‍
• LWV of WA – Action Workshop – December 5th & 12th - https://lwvwa.org/event-4049956‍
• LWV of WA – Speak Up School - https://lwvwa.org/speakup/

In the News & Protect the Results Updates:

• Interactive Map Reveals Which Indigenous Lands You’re Living On - https://mymodernmet.com/interactive-map-indigenous-lands/ - Native Land - https://native-land.ca/
  
• Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade just featured a native land acknowledgment - https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/26/us/macys-thanksgiving-day-parade-land-acknowledgment-trnd/index.html
  
• Over 30 Trump Campaign Lawsuits Have Failed. Some Rulings Are Scathing. - https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/25/us/elections/trump-campaign-lawsuits.html
  
• Barr says he hasn’t seen fraud that could affect the election outcome - https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/barr-no-evidence-election-fraud/2020/12/01/5f4dcaa8-340a-11eb-8d38-6aea1adb3839_story.html
  
• 'Damaging to our democracy': Trump election lawsuits targeted areas with large Black, Latino populations - https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/12/01/trump-voter-fraud-claims-target-counties-more-black-latino-votes/6391908002/
• Trump's fraud claims undermine democracy, ex-US election security chief says - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/30/trump-election-fraud-claims-aim-chris-krebs
• Trump supporter who gave $2.5m to fight election fraud wants money back - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/28/trump-donor-election-fraud-sues-money-back
• ‘Someone’s going to get killed’: GOP election official in Georgia blames President Trump for fostering violent threats - https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/georgia-official-trump-election/2020/12/01/f1d5c962-3427-11eb-b59c-adb7153d10c2_story.html
• The top 6 reasons why democracy's guardrails held after the election - https://thefulcrum.us/big-picture/guardrails-of-democracy
• PA Representative to repeal mail-in voting - https://www.abc27.com/news/pennsylvania/pa-representative-to-repeal-mail-in-voting/
• Democracy Is Still Not Safe in the United States - https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/11/30/democracy-not-safe-in-united-states/
• There Aren’t Serious-Enough Consequences for Those Trying to Break American Democracy - https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/there-arent-enough-consequences-trying-break-american-democracy/617214/
• Dark Money in the 2020 Election - https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/dark-money-2020-election
• How State Political Parties Helped Big Money Pay for the 2020 Election - https://www.marylandmatters.org/2020/11/30/how-state-political-parties-helped-big-money-pay-for-the-2020-election/
• Democrats deride 'dark' money, but a new analysis shows it helped boost Joe Biden - https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/27/politics/dark-money-democrats-joe-biden/index.html
• Justice Department Investigating Possible Bribery-For-Pardon Scheme - https://www.npr.org/2020/12/01/940960089/justice-department-investigating-possible-bribery-for-pardon-scheme
• Ranked Choice Voting 2020 Ballot Measures - https://www.fairvote.org/rcv_2020_ballot_measures
• Alaska's new elections system challenged in state court - https://thefulcrum.us/voting/alaska-ballot-measure-lawsuit
• Issue One raises concerns about two individuals nominated to serve on Federal Election Commission - https://www.issueone.org/issue-one-raises-concerns-about-two-individuals-nominated-to-serve-on-federal-election-commission/
• 33 Groups Urge Biden to Reject Big Tech Appointments to His Cabinet - https://www.citizen.org/article/32-groups-urge-biden-to-reject-big-tech-appointments-to-his-cabinet/
• US lawmakers unveil anti-slavery constitutional amendment - https://abc7news.com/13th-amendment-us-constitution-anti-slavery-constitutional/8445288/
• Accountability 2021 – Recommendations for restoring accountability in federal government - https://www.accountability2021.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Accountability-2021-Agenda.pdf

Lobbying Links:

• What is lobbying? - https://www.lobbyists4good.org/what-is-lobbying
  
• Lobbying – the good, the bad and the ugly - https://www.opensourceinvestigations.com/democracy/lobbying-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/
  
• How Corporate Lobbyists Conquered American Democracy - Business didn't always have so much power in Washington. - https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/04/how-corporate-lobbyists-conquered-american-democracy/390822/
  
• How States Define Lobbying and Lobbyist - https://www.ncsl.org/research/ethics/50-state-chart-lobby-definitions.aspx
  
• Influence & Lobbying - https://www.opensecrets.org/influence/
  
• Fixed Fortunes: Biggest corporate political interests spend billions, get trillions - https://sunlightfoundation.com/2014/11/17/fixed-fortunes-biggest-corporate-political-interests-spend-billions-get-trillions/
  
• About half of retiring senators and a third of retiring House members register as lobbyists - https://www.vox.com/2016/1/15/10775788/revolving-door-lobbying
  
• Revolving Door - https://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/
  
• Industries Lobbying - https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/industries?cycle=2020
  
• Will COVID-19 close the revolving door? - https://www.rollcall.com/2020/09/15/will-covid-19-close-the-revolving-door/
  
• Congressional Staffers & Lobbying -  https://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/top.php?display=M
  
• From elected official to lobbyist in just days: Revolving door raises questions about powerful influences in Olympia - https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/washington-one-of-the-few-states-without-a-cooling-off-period-for-public-servants-turned-lobbyists/
  
• Fix Washington state’s government-to-lobbyist revolving door - https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/editorials/fix-the-government-to-lobbyist-revolving-door/
  
• In Washington, the revolving door between government service and lobbying is well-greased - https://www.opb.org/article/2020/09/02/washington-state-government-officials-lobbying-revolving-door/
  
• SB 5033 - Concerning employment after public service in state government. - https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=5033&Chamber=Senate&Year=2019

Georgia Senate Runoff Efforts:

• New Georgia Project - https://newgeorgiaproject.org/volunteer/become-a-volunteer/
  
• Georgia Election Voter Hub - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScGtsoXcTzXT8LznXZXTyRGVTR9A10OoEnblp0DA8mQ9KRuZg/viewform
  
• Fair Fight - https://fairfight.com/
  
• Common Power - https://commonpower.org/