Call your two US Senators and ask them to support the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act

Public Citizen is asking us to call our two US Senators, and ask them to support the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act (S.223). It would require all senate candidates, both challengers and incumbents if office, to file their campaign finance reports electronically (as opposed to paper). Just as important, they need to support the bill without the Ensign Amendment, which is unconstitutional.

In addition to bringing technology up-to-date, it would save the American taxpayer $250,000. per year! Call both of your senators right now; you can reach them at the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121. Then, if you can, please leave word with Public Citizen on whether they do already support the bill without the amendment. Thank you

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Presidential candidate Clinton phone conversation with questionable fundraiser on video

I just stumbled upon a video clip on Silobreaker of a telephone conversation Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had with a fundraiser. The caption below the video player states "Hiliary Clinton Caught violating Campaign finance laws". Frankly, I can't catch the law-breaking activity mentioned in the conversation; it apparently is a gala near Hollywood to honor her husband and previous president Bill Clinton that would benefit Hillary's campaign; she says on the phone that she as a candidate was briefed on the gala's details, and that her future thoughts will be conveyed to the fundraisers through her campaign helper.

The YouTube video is here; it is several minutes long.

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Watch video on public financing of elections

John Rauh, founder of Americans for Campaign Reform (Just $6) interviews best-selling author Frances Moore Lappe in an entertaining video about public financing of elections, or, as some call it, "clean elections".

Presently, this video clip is not picked up by users of the Firefox browser.
UPDATE: A commenter notified us that video works on Firefox. Thanks for letting us know!

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Presidential candidate John McCain receiving many lobbyist bundlers to finance his campaign

Public Citizen has issued a press release on the rise of the unethical practice of lobbyist bundlers supporting presidential candidates. There are already more of them than in all of 2004, the last presidential election year. Perhaps more striking is the fact that the leading candidate receiving this questionable campaign finance help is none other than U.S. Senator John McCain (Repub.).

McCain has often been on the front lines of reform in Congress, as an author or co-author of campaign finance-related bills. And now, as the second leading presidential candidate in lobbyist bundling receipts, former New York City mayor Rudy Guiliani (Repub.) is likely to end his candidacy and endorse McCain later today; the senator may subsequently receive even more lobbyist bundlers.

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Tell the FEC NO on this Friday's ruling about presidential public financing

Public Campaign has issued a letter to the FEC (Federal Election Commission) concerning the public financing of presidential elections. The FEC is considering a ruling that would prevent some small-dollar donations given through the web from triggering public matching funds for candidates who have opted into the system.

The FEC vote for this is scheduled for this Friday, December 14. Public Campaign urges us to turn down this new rule, so that small donors can keep a stake in the race for presidential campaign contributions. If you agree, please take action here to "sign" Public Campaign's letter to the FEC.

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A sample report from one of this blog's database lists

This is a campaign finance report of U.S. Representative Neugebauer; it is derived from free links in this blog's "Campaign Finance Databases" in the left column (CQ's Moneyline database is fee-based). It is just one thing you can do for your own representatives; you can also search their campaign finances, government finances, ethics violations and other news. Then, cull from your reports information that may be useful in your communications, and, ultimately, in your votes next election day.

U.S. Representative Randy Neugebauer (R-TX): campaign finance data links

Details at http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.asp?CID=N00026043&cycle=2006
opensecrets.org
Candidates
Neugebauer 2005-2006 campaign finance totals

Details at http://www.politicalbase.com/people/randy-neugebauer/9822/money/
Political Base
People: Money
Neugebauer campaign finance totals and data

Details at http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/can_detail/H4TX19102/
Federal Election Commission (FEC)
Candidates
Individual records of Neugebauer: Contributions Made by This Candidate's Committees, Committees Who Gave to This Candidate, Individuals Who Gave to This Candidate

Details at http://www.publicintegrity.org/consultants/list.aspx?act=canDetail&id=H4TX19102
The Center for Public Integrity
Consultants
Amount spent on campaign consultants, 2003-2004: $2,500,303

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A wealth of campaign and government data at your fingertips

I have broken up the "Government Reform-Related Databases" list on the left column into two lists: "Campaign Finance Databases" and "Government Finance Databases". This makes it easier to pick and choose the databases you need for any one project.

There are seven campaign-related databases for when you want to background check each of your candidates, on the state and national levels. Plus, there are nine databases for when you want to check existing elected officials of state legislatures and Washington and their spending habits.

Advances in internet technology has made these databases possible, with many developed just in the last couple of years. They are easy to use, and they make a great study for the next time you write your next letter to any of your representatives, or when you write that letter to the editor.

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Ask our presidential candidates what they think of public financing of campaigns

Just $6, from Americans for Campaign Reform, is running a grassroots campaign right now for the first several presidential primary states. They want you to ask your candidate whether he/she supports public financing of campaigns. Please follow this link Just $6, and follow their easy instructions.

Just $6 is an innovative approach to public financing of federal campaigns-- for just $6 per citizen, candidates each election cycle can brush aside donations from private special interests and spend more time with the voters. It proves to be less expensive, too, than the fundraising route.

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Government Reform-Related Databases

We've added a new list on the left panel of this page, called "Government Reform-Related Databases". It is a links list of user-friendly search engines for money in politics data.

Developing internet technology has enabled public interest groups such as the Sunshine Foundation to make government data more accessible to the general public. As more come online, I will add them here.

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Ask your U.S. Senators to vote YES on campaign finance electronic filing

U.S. Senator Ensign disclosed Monday night that he was the one who blocked legislation requiring senatorial candidates to file campaign finance reports electronically. The bill is alive again, and may be brought to the floor any time now.

This bill is a common sense update of campaign finance reporting; the U.S. House of Representatives candidates are already required to do this.

Send a message to your two senators asking them to say YES to campaign finance report electronic filing. As of today, there are already 40 bill co-sponsors.

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Public financing of campaigns represents all of the voters

A Connecticut Post article, entitled "Candidates Use Money from New State Fund," interviews the two candidates for State Representative running in a special election that is publicly financed. Democrat James Orazietti finds this approach of campaign financing to be encouraging for more people considering a run for office.

In the privately financed election that most races are undergoing today, all candidates must personally search for and attract individual and PAC financial contributions to fuel their campaigns. This takes staff, time and money that would otherwise go towards actually interacting with the voters.

Public financing doesn't discriminate the candidate on which individuals or PACs contribute to his campaign. He is beholden to all of the constituents in his district. Therefore, when the winner legislates for his people, he will not fight for some constituents in preference over others.

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Incumbent protection scheme degrades democracy

The Corruption Chronicles blog, a favorite of mine from Judicial Watch, writes that legislators in the Pennsylvania House use taxpayer funds to pay their staff for re-election campaign work. This includes House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese.

On the federal level, many of our representatives employ at least one full-time staff person for nothing but campaign work; but most presumably use their campaign funds. Judicial Watch's story pertains to the state of Pennsylvania legislature; who knows how many other state officeholders around our country employ the same tactic?

Using public funds to pay campaign workers is illegal; PA's state attorney general has launched an investigation into the taxpayer abuse. State legislators have a great responsibility to conduct themselves in an ethical manner, for thousands of voters entrust them with their leadership every two years. Incumbent protection schemes such as this degrade our democracy, and the fairness of our electoral system.

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The mandate is there-- no lobbyist campaign contributions!

The Gallup Poll company just concluded a political reform survey about whether presidential candidates should accept campaign contributions from lobbyists. Even though the question was asked in different ways, the vast majority, around 80%, of adults said 'no'. It looks like most respondents, whether Republican, Democrat or Independent, saw the ethical implications of such donations.

If a Congressional candidate accepted financial contributions from a lobbyist, then, if he won, was visited by that same lobbyist about a bill up for a vote, you would see the obvious conflict of interest. Now, take this one step further: if a union paid that lobbyist to work for that bill, the conflict of interest problem would affect the union. So, it is in the interest of the lobbying firm not to not engage in financial campaign contributions if they want to professionally (and ethically) represent their future clients.

Stopping lobbyist "bundling" of financial contributions from others is currently under legislation-- it's awaiting the President's signature for approval. Lobbyist individual contributions, however, continue unabated. Democratic presidential candidates Edwards and Obama have publicly committed to not accepting campaign contributions from lobbyists. Let us hope more candidates see the light and do the same thing soon.

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Speech! Speech! 2

I make a point of reading on a daily basis several political reform blogs; one in particular I like is the Public Campaign Action Fund blog-- it promotes Public Campaign's work for public financing of elections. Clean elections is indeed the solution to many of today's campaign ethics problems on the federal, state and other levels of government.

It's not common I commit a whole post to another person's post and comments, but since it includes a comment by yours truly, I wanted to share this one from Public Campaign's own, Kathy Schlieper.

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Let us end the long-running campaign finance tug-of-war

There seems to be a constant campaign finance reform tug-of-war, between reformers, and opponents who argue for free speech. Sometimes the reformers have things going their way, sometimes it's their opponents. Presently, free speechers can produce special interest attack ads thanks to a recent Supreme Court decision.

Now, the presidential candidates declare they are for campaign finance reform, whether they practice it fully or not. For instance, Barack Obama likes to share the high number of small private donations to his campaign; and yet, he has already received $1.5 million of support from higher education special interests.

There is, however, a better solution to this tug-of-war, and that is public financing of campaigns. This idea is spreading across America in the individual states; Maine and Arizona are examples of successful public financing; there is also the Fair Elections Now Act moving through the Senate. This is a practical, non-ideological consideration that of course involves candidates from all parts of the political spectrum. Having a clean system in place consistently relieves all candidates from asking for campaign donations and allows them to focus on all of the voters.

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Campaign finance abuse leads to mistrust with constituents

There is a dangerous lack of trust between the American people and our President. For many quarters of the political community, Bush has not earned his credentials since he first entered office in 2001. It is only after several years of kowtowing to his major campaign fundraisers at the highest levels of government that most of the nation is now at odds with him.

In effect, Bush's administration is a living case of the campaign finance abuses of his electoral campaigns for 2000 and 2004. In an attitude of a free-wheeling cowboy, he gave special names to his largest campaign donation bundlers (those who marshalled big money donations personally). In an attitude of cronyism, he enlisted these bundlers and other political hacks to high government positions. And in an attitude of executive priviledge, Bush is now justifying his cronies 'till they are thrown out of office.

There is now a year and a half left in our President's last term of office. Will the American people justify their sense of citizenship and patriotism and lose all trust with him? Only time will tell.

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Ask your U.S. Senators to support the Fair Elections Now Act - S1285

Assistant Senate Majority Leader Senator Dick Durbin, D-IL, has introduced the Fair Elections Now Act, S 1285; it is the first time public financing of congressional campaigns has received such high-level support. Rep. John Tierney, D-MA, has introduced similar legislation in the House that will cover House races.

The Fair Elections Now Act will restore public confidence in the election process by allowing qualified candidates to receive campaign funds from the Senate Fair Elections Fund instead of asking for money from private or special interests. In return, participating candidates would voluntarily agree to limit their campaign spending to the amount allocated to them.

This voluntary alternative to privately financed campaigns will free candidates from the all-consuming money chase. Candidates could instead devote their time and energy to talking with their district's constituents about the issues that are important to them.

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Public financing of campaigns frees us from special interests

The Washington Post writes today about the "contamination" of public officials' duties, as opposed to the "corruption" of them. I believe there exists both, and I understand that most of the influence of big money on campaigns contaminates the winners' priorities when they enter office. However, both problems-- contamination and corruption-- must be dealt with through the public financing of campaigns. By being free from the pains of raising funds from the private sector, candidates can spend most of their time addressing all of the people of their district; with a publicly financed campaign, issues of we the people can always be front and center. Public Campaign has taken the lead in campaign finance issues as a proponent of publicly-financed campaigns; they have already seen success across this nation, and with the rising amounts of money today's federal candidates are receiving from individuals and special interests, now is the time more than ever for public financing for all levels of government.

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