Fred Wertheimer

Fred Wertheimer is the President and CEO of the non-partisan campaign reform group Democracy 21 and the Democracy 21 Education Fund, which he founded in 1997. Wertheimer has spent more than 30 years working on the issues of money in politics, government accountability, and reform of the political system and is widely recognized as one of the nation's leading authorities and spokespersons on these issues. Wertheimer also helped expose the "satchels of cash" and illegal corporate contributions to the re-election campaign of Richard Nixon.

"Wertheimer has been described by The New York Times as 'the country's leading proponent of campaign finance reform' and as 'the lobbyist most closely associated with pressing to change the system.' He has been described by The Wall Street Journal as 'perhaps the capital's longest-toiling advocate of reducing the role of money in politics.' Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne has described him as 'the eminence grise of the campaign reform movement.'

"President of Common Cause from 1981 to 1995, Wertheimer also has served as a Fellow at the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University; as the J. Skelly Wright Fellow and Visiting Lecturer at Yale Law School; and as a political analyst and consultant for CBS News, ABC News and ABC's Nightline."

External Resources
Democracy 21 website

2008 Center for Public Integrity interview with Wertheimer about the McCain-Feingold bill