The Connecticut Citizen Action Group, or CCAG, is a public advocacy group prominent in Connecticut politics. Founded by politician and consumer advocate Ralph Nader and future Congressman Toby Moffett in 1970, CCAG seeks to promote social, economic, and environmental justice.
The organization has done extensive campaigning for clean elections, consumer protection, universal healthcare, environmental protection, and against government corruption and war. It is Connecticut's oldest and largest non-profit public interest group, with over 20,000 citizen members within the state.
Some of CCAG's past legislative victories include obtaining expiration dates on dairy products in 1972, passage of the nations second "bottle bill" (5 cent returnables on bottles and cans) in 1978, blocking the Interstate 84 expansion to Rhode Island in 1983, passage of the HUSKY (Health Care for Uninsured Kids and Youth) medical program in 1997, and the 2005 passage of the Citizens Election Program.
They are not affiliated with any political party and have no set ideology, but regularly endorse electoral candidates and political movements.
The organization is currently based in the West End of Hartford, Connecticut and regularly runs a team of canvassers.
Famous quotes containing the words citizen, action and/or group:
“To be a born American citizen seems a guarantee against pauperism; and this, perhaps, springs from the virtue of a vote.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“The highest proof of civility is that the whole public action of the State is directed on securing the greatest good of the greatest number.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Laughing at someone else is an excellent way of learning how to laugh at oneself; and questioning what seem to be the absurd beliefs of another group is a good way of recognizing the potential absurdity of many of one’s own cherished beliefs.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)