Alec Hamilton

On January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court decided in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that limiting corporate spending on political campaigns was a violation of free speech rights. In the elections last month, we saw our first example of just what that ruling brings to the process -- but many questions about the long-term ramifications on democracy still remain.  

We are transforming ourselves into an administrative state, issuing more and more regulations that are throttling our freedom of action. I don’t think people recognize the extent to w...

In this time of fiscal austerity it is not clear to me, as Comptroller, that we really do need all of those consultants working for the city. - John Liu, New York City Comptroller

The Republican victories in the 2010 elections last month means a new influx of GOP committee chairs. House Republicans have announced the names of the new chairs, and it is worth a closer look at some of the personalities who will be heading these important panels in the House.

» Check out the slideshow below.

There is a lot of alignment in the center. It just doesn’t come from a pre-packaged ideology. It’s just how people come to it naturally by looking at the issues. -Soloman Kleinsmith,...

It's A Free Country and The Brian Lehrer Show bring you the fall election series 30 Issues in 30 Days. We will explore one issue every day until election day - issues of relevance to the NY, NJ and CT elections and the national midterm congressional races. This week, we'll be looking into whether there is a Democratic and a Republican way to be state comptroller.

It's A Free Country and The Brian Lehrer Show bring you the fall election series 30 Issues in 30 Days. We will explore one issue every day until election day - issues of relevance to the NY, NJ and CT elections and the national midterm congressional races. This week, we'll be looking into the issue of healthcare reform. Here is what our research found the two candidates for Governor say about the issue.

It's A Free Country looks at the positions and priorities of the candidates for New York governor who aren't named Andrew Cuomo or Carl Paladino.

It's A Free Country and The Brian Lehrer Show bring you the fall election series 30 Issues in 30 Days. We will explore one issue every day until election day - issues of relevance to the NY, NJ and CT elections and the national midterm congressional races. This week, we'll be looking into whether there is a Democratic and a Republican way to be state comptroller.

It's A Free Country and The Brian Lehrer Show bring you the fall election series 30 Issues in 30 Days. We will explore one issue every day until election day - issues of relevance to the NY, NJ and CT elections and the national midterm congressional races. Next week, we'll be looking into the issue of immigration. Here is what our research found the two candidates for Governor say about the issue.

Each week on It's A Free Country we bring you Wonk Wars. This week, we're asking policy experts to react to the statement "Public Employees Get Too Many Benefits". Here is what our research found the two candidates for Governor say about the issue.