# Common Sense Party of California

The Common Sense Party of California is a political party in the U.S. state of California. It was founded in 2019 under the chairmanship of Tom Campbell, and has been seeking to acquire enough voter registrations to qualify as a state-recognized political party.

## History

The Common Sense Party was founded in 2019 by former Republican representative Tom Campbell, former Independent state Senator Quentin Kopp, former political consultant Dan Schnur, and former state Commerce Secretary Julie Meier Wright. Coming with multi-partisan experiences in California politics, these politicians collaborated to create a new political party that supports governance reform and multi-party representation.
On January 27, 2023, the Common Sense Party and the Forward Party announced a coalition in California with the goal of achieving the necessary 73,000 registered voters to gain qualified political party status in the state.
This arrangement appears to have been revised in 2024, however. Accessed on November 10, 2024, the first item on the "Announcements" page of the Forward Party California site, dated July 4, 2024, begins with: "We're excited to announce that Forward Party is officially back in California!" There is no mention of the Common Sense Party on this site, nor on the main Forward Party site (where the "find your state" page directs interested Californian volunteers to click on a link to the Forward Party California site, "Join the Movement," page). On its "Help Us Qualify" page, Forward Party California furthermore invites voters to "update party preference to...Forward Party." Meanwhile, the Common Sense Party site (also accessed on Nov. 10) gives no indication of any explicit currently active coalition or affiliation with either the main Forward Party or its local affiliate, Forward Party California.
As of October 21, 2024, the California Secretary of State "Reports of Registration" website lists both the "Common Sense Party" and the "Forward Party" as "Political Bodies Attempting Qualify," with 18,410 and 431 registered voters, respectively.

## Political positions

The Common Sense Party focuses primarily on reform of the political system rather than specific issues, concentrating on the state level.

### Legislative and Voting Reform

The Common Sense Party advocates legislative transparency and accountability (a possible example being to "require a recorded vote on every bill in committee"). It also supports alternative voting systems, for instance proposing "ranked choice voting" as a "potential solution" to limited choices of candidates."

### Campaign Finance Reform

The Common Sense Party supports campaign finance reform, for instance suggesting democracy vouchers aimed at reducing the financial influence of PACs, special interest groups, and lobbies. It has also been critical of the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. FEC, which prohibited the government from restricting independent expenditures for political campaigns by corporations and other associations.

### Eventual other issues

On his "position papers" web page, Tom Campbell explains that the "Common Sense Party stand[s] for...candidates who think for themselves,” and offers an extensive set of "possible beliefs such a candidate might hold," on issues including "compassionate and moderate" immigration reform, climate change ("global carbon tax"), and affordable housing (for example, "built-out" cities financially helping non-built-out cities in the region provide additional affordable housing).

## Like-minded candidates in November, 2024 elections

In the elections of November 5, 2024, a nationwide total of 25 winning candidates for local offices were supported by the similarly oriented Forward Party. Two of these winners were elected in the state of California: Nathan Hochman (independent) as District Attorney for Los Angeles, and Kevin Shin (non partisan) -likely winner as of November 6- to the Carlsbad City Council.