Category: Challenging Foreign Influence

New York State Senate Cracks Down on Multinational Corporations Interfering in State Elections, Passes Democracy Preservation Act

If passed in the Assembly and signed into law, New York would be the first state to ban multinational corporate money in elections. ALBANY, NY (June 3, 2021) – The New York State Senate today passed, with bipartisan support, the Democracy Preservation Act (S1126), a bill designed to end the influence of foreign corporate money
Read More

Commissioner Ellen Weintraub of the U.S. Federal Election Commission Urges New York State Legislature To Support The Democracy Preservation Act.

FEC Commissioner Ellen Weintraub sent a letter to members of the New York State Legislature, urging them to support the Democracy Preservation Act and protect New York’s state and local elections from foreign influence. “Elections at all levels in the United States have been under sustained direct attack from our foreign adversaries,” Commissioner Weintraub writes.
Read More

New Free Speech For People Video Explains How Foreign-Influenced Corporations Interfere in U.S. Elections.

Checkout our latest video explaining how to stop multinational corporations such as Uber and Amazon from spending millions of dollars trying to influence U.S. elections. We The People are fighting back. As the video explains: Seventy-three percent of Americans, including majorities of both Democrats and Republicans, support limiting political spending by companies with any foreign
Read More

WATCH: New York Democracy Preservation Act Virtual Town Hall – May 13, 2021

Since the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United, foreign-influenced corporations have spent millions to sway elections in New York. Take Airbnb, for example: the home-sharing platform, partly owned by a Russian oligarch’s venture fund, funneled $11M into a super PAC to defeat legislators seeking to impose restrictions on the company in 2016. But New
Read More

Free Speech For People Denounces Florida Legislature’s Power Grab Against Cities and Counties

Cities and counties in Florida have long been empowered through principles of home rule to enact their own local campaign finance laws. But the Florida governor recently signed a law, aimed directly at our success in St. Petersburg–where we helped develop and pass a groundbreaking ordinance that bans political spending by foreign-influenced corporations, and limits
Read More

Federal Election Commission Deadlocks 3-3 on Free Speech For People’s Complaint Challenging Citgo’s Illegal Contribution to Trump Inaugural Committee

The Federal Election Commission divided 3-3 on Free Speech For People’s 2017 complaint against the oil company Citgo, its Venezuelan state-owned parent company, and President Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee. The FEC’s general counsel agreed with Free Speech For People that the companies and the inaugural committee violated a federal ban on donations to inaugural committees
Read More

The Democracy Preservation Act: FSFP Mounting a Challenge Against Foreign Corporate Influence in New York Elections

Free Speech For People has been at the forefront in the fight to end foreign-influenced corporate campaign spending, researching, drafting, and advocating for legislation on all levels of government. We helped to successfully pass laws in St. Petersburg, Florida in 2017, and in Seattle, Washington in 2020. Seven states (Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New
Read More

FSFP Legal Director Ron Fein Discusses Foreign-Influenced Corporate Spending On Maine Public Radio.

Maine Public Radio recently published a segment on foreign-influenced corporate spending in elections which featured FSFP Legal Director Ron Fein. Throughout the segment, Fein discussed the need to fight against foreign influence in Maine, where a contentious ballot measure has prompted a state-wide discussion on the issue of democratic self-government. “Our position is that the
Read More

FSFP Legal Director Ron Fein Co-Authors New Oped With John Brautigam In The Lewiston Sun Journal On The Need To Limit Political Spending By Foreign-Influenced Corporations In Maine.

The Lewiston Sun Journal published a new oped by FSFP Legal Director Ron Fein and Maine Citizens for Clean Elections’ Attorney John Brautigam on the case for limiting political spending by foreign-influenced corporations in Maine. The article states: Most people agree that foreign entities shouldn’t be able to influence our elections. It doesn’t matter whether
Read More

VIDEO: Free Speech For People And Our Fight To End Foreign-Influenced Corporate Spending in Our Elections

Free Speech For People has been at the forefront in the fight to end foreign-influenced corporate campaign spending, researching, drafting, and advocating for legislation on all levels of government. We helped to successfully pass laws in St. Petersburg, Florida in 2017, and in Seattle, Washington in 2020. Seven states (Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New
Read More