NVRI

What We Do

Reform

NVRI engages in extensive public education and outreach efforts across the United States. Through this work we seek to increase public understanding of the excessive and corrupting influence of private money in our political system and of the inherent inequality resulting from a system dominated by wealth. We aim to redefine campaign finance as a civil rights/voting rights issue.

As part of its mission to dramatically change the current campaign finance system in this country, NVRI:

1. Builds key bridges between the civil rights and campaign finance reform communities
2. Sponsors public events, discussions and conferences to bring together activists, scholars, and key decision makers in order to broaden the public debate on campaign finance
3. Informs and educates university students and professors, grassroots organizers, and members of the legal community across the United States
4. Commissions studies and independent research to support our litigation efforts
5. Works with Attorneys General Offices and Secretaries of States to defend reforms at the state level
6. publishes a newsletter, NVRI Update as well as news articles and op-eds

Linking the Civil Rights and Campaign Finance Reform Communities

So long as access to money is a prerequisite to electoral participation, communities of color and the non-wealthy will be denied full political representation in the United States. That is why a new civil rights movement that challenges the inequities wrought by private funding of political campaigns is crucial to any meaningful campaign finance reform effort.

The Institute is unique for building key bridges between the campaign finance reform and civil rights communities. Through our wealth primary court challenges, we have created first-ever coalitions led by civil rights organizations and longtime civil rights activists. The Institute also helped create a national consortium of organizations that is focused on reframing the campaign finance issue in the civil rights context.

The new initiative, called the Fannie Lou Hamer Project (www.flhp.org), is engaged in significant public education work targeting the membership of the NAACP and SCLC. Through their public education efforts, the Fannie Lou Hamer Project hopes to involve the national leadership of both organizations in the campaign finance reform movement. The Fannie Lou Hamer Project is named after the legendary civil rights leader from Mississippi.

Leading the Way: NVRI Events and Conferences

As part of our mission to connect people from all walks of life who are working for fundamental change of our campaign finance system, NVRI regularly sponsors public debates, discussions and conferences. Through these events we seek to broaden the public debate on campaign finance reform as well as to highlight important new ideas. We bring together activists, scholars, and key decision makers to open new avenues of dialogue and to help foster wide-ranging debates.

Campaign Finance and the Equality Promise:
Building a Multi-Racial Movement for Reform Summit,
April 25, 2001

With the Gordon Public Policy Center at Brandeis University and the Fannie Lou Hamer Project, NVRI brought together national civil rights and campaign finance reform leaders from across the country to initiate a national dialogue on reframing campaign finance as a civil rights issue. The summit, chaired by veteran civil rights leader Professor Roger Wilkins, sought to address a major issue of our time — that the current campaign finance system restricts civic and political participation based on socioeconomic status, and therefore results in a disparate impact on low-income communities and communities of color. The NAACP was honored at the meeting for its century old commitment to the struggle for democracy. Nelson Rivers III, the National Director of Branch and Field Services for the NAACP, received the award on behalf of the organization.

"Campaign finance is a basic civil rights issue of our time," said Stephanie Wilson, director of the Fannie Lou Hamer Project and speaker at the summit. "Today's campaign finance system corrupts our electoral process. But it also undermines this nation's guarantee of political equality for all."

Atlanta Strategy Meeting,
June 1999

The Institute convened a key strategy meeting in Atlanta of 25 leading civil rights activists from around the country to discuss the launching of the Fannie Lou Hamer Project. Participants at the meeting created the project as a way to involve the national leadership of civil rights and campaign finance reform organizations. This meeting was a direct follow up to an earlier NVRI-sponsored conference held in February 1999 (see below).

Campaign Finance as a Civil Rights Issue Conference,
February 1999

More than 175 civil rights and democracy activists from across the country participated in the joint Howard University School of Law and NVRI event, "Campaign Finance as a Civil Rights Issue," which many participants described as a watershed event. The conference brought together civil rights organizations, such as the NAACP and the SCLC, and key campaign finance reform organizations to discuss the need for dramatic change of our campaign finance system. This conference focused on NVRI's wealth primary litigation work around the nation as well as the need to continue redefining the campaign finance question as a basic voting rights issue, one that is tied to earlier struggles for the right to vote.

The conference resulted in the national distribution of a video to activists, the publication of a special issue of the Howard Law Journal with excerpts from the conference, and the resolution to create a listserve for all conference participants and other interested persons.

 

Informing and Educating School Groups, Legal Communities and Others about the Corrupting Influence of Money in Politics

NVRI conducts outreach to legal communities and universities throughout the country, helping to introduce new ideas and further public understanding about the excessive and corrupting influence of private money on the political system. In these presentations, the Institute works to further both the understanding and the connection between the civil rights and campaign finance reform communities. If you or someone you know would like an NVRI staff member to make a presentation to your group, please email us at nvri@nvri.org or call (617) 368-9100.

 

Working with State Attorneys General and Secretaries of State

NVRI has worked closely with state government officials throughout the country to defend or advance reforms at the state level. NVRI led a bi-partisan coalition of 24 state attorneys general in 1997 in a call for a reconsideration of the U.S. Supreme Court's 1976 ruling in Buckley v. Valeo. The Institute also led a similar coalition of secretaries of state. For more information about the coalition that supported our work in our Cincinnati case, see Kruse v. Cincinnati.

 

Commissioning Polls and Independent Research

NVRI occasionally commissions polls and independent research to support its litigation work across the United States. We use this information to help inform our work, support our litigation efforts, and to assist the work of others in the campaign finance and civil rights communities. Such opinion research has been conducted for our cases in Cincinnati, Ohio, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Vermont.

 

Our poll in Albuquerque, for instance, showed overwhelming support for campaign spending limits. The poll, conducted by public opinion research firms Lake Snell Perry and Associates and the Deardourff/The Media Company, demonstrated that 70% of the Albuquerque public had a much more favorable view of local politics than they did of national politics. Since Albuquerque is the only major city in the country with any experience with mandatory campaign spending limits, this information supported NVRI's case that such limits increase public confidence in the electoral process. For more information or to receive a copy of these polls, E-mail us at nvri@nvri.org or contact us at (617) 368-9100.

 

Informing Others Through NVRI's Newsletter, NVRI Update

NVRI publishes a newsletter, the NVRI Update, to update people around the country of our work. Through our publications, we help reframe political debates, as well as provide factual information to policymakers, advocates, and grassroots reformers across the United States. If you would like to receive our latest newsletter or to receive our newsletter via Email, please contact us at nvri@nvri.org or sign up on our What's New email list.