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Comments Off on Marko Liias Considers Run for Congress
Posted in Congress, Democrats, Elections
Tagged 1st Congressional District, 2012 Elections, Congressional races, Congressman Jay Inslee, Marko Liias, Washington politics
The latest campaign contribution and expenditure figures for Congressional races reported by the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) are dated from the end of July 2010 for a report only through June 30, 2010. In an age of electronic and computer nimbleness when news can circulate the globe in a matter of seconds, campaign finance disclosure by candidates running for the US Senate and the House seem to be in the pre-telegraph era.
This antiquated campaign disclosure system hurts the democratic process by denying the public access to campaign spending and contribution information. It is an insult to the public and benefits special interests trying to obscure and cloud the impact money is having in Congressional races. The public has a right to know who is contributing to candidates and how much is being spent. The current system is a failure for timely disclosure.
And this is not even discussing the most recent insult – the unfettered and unrestricted flow of special interest and corporate dollars flowing into committees and organizations, including those that are filed with the IRS as 501-c-4 organizations that are not required to disclose their donors at all. This is all the result of the conservative faction put on the US Supreme Court which in their 5 to 4 decision of Citizens United vs the Federal Elections Commission ruled that money and free speech are one and the same.
Current reporting to the FEC by US Senate and House candidates is on a quarterly basis. Reports are due April 15, July 15, Oct 15, and Jan 31. There is an additional Pre-Primary and Pre-General Election report. The Pre-General Election report covers Oct 1 -13 and is due Oct 21.
Meanwhile amazingly, Presidential campaigns are required to report monthly as are Party organizations and PAC’s. Monthly reports are due on the 20th of the following month.
If you haven’t yet figured it out, its Congress who set the reporting requirements for Congress to only report quarterly. And a further delay is that while the House and Presidential campaigns file directly electronically with the FEC, the Senate adds additional delay in reporting by first requiring that a PAPER copy be filed with the US Senate which then forwards that to the FEC. Yes the word PAPER is correct. Talk about being behind the times.
Meanwhile here in Washington State reports for candidates are filed with our Public Disclosure Commission monthly, electronically and the deadline is the 10th of the following month. This includes races for statewide office like Governor which encompasses obviously the same geographical area as a US Senate race.
Two separate bills are before Congress to increase public disclosure that deserve public support. The first is a perennial bill to require Senate candidates to file electronic copies of their reports. This is Russ Feingold’s bill, the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act. He notes it would save taxpayers $250,000. As Feingold states,
Under the current paper filing system, the FEC’s detailed coding, which allows for more sophisticated searches and analysis, is completed over a week later for Senate reports than for House reports. This means that the final disclosure reports covering contributions made during the first two weeks of October are often not subject to detailed scrutiny before the election. Detailed campaign expenditure information is never available electronically because the FEC does not enter that information into its databases.
Help urge the US Senate to join the electronic computer era. Send an e-mail to your Senators urging they join the digital revolution in reporting campaign contributions. Click on the link to email Washington State’s Senators:
Senator Maria Cantwell
Senator Patty Murray
To e-mail Senators in other states go to the US Senate website.
The other legislation that Republicans have blocked to date is the DISCLOSE Bill. As noted in a citizen co-sponsor website at http://www.discloseact.com/
The DISCLOSE Act legislation will address seven major points:
1. Enhance Disclaimers
Make CEOs and other leaders take responsibility for their ads.
2. Enhance Disclosures
It is time to follow the money.
3. Prevent Foreign Influence
Foreign countries and entities should not be determining the outcome of our elections.
4. Shareholder/Member Disclosure
We should allow shareholders and members to know where money goes.
5. Prevent Government Contractors from Spending
Taxpayer money should not be spent on political ads.
6. Provide the Lowest Unit Rate for Candidates and Parties
Special interests should not drown out the voices of the people.
7. Tighten Coordination Rules
Corporations should not be able to “sponsor” a candidate
Please also urge your Senatore to pass this bill. The House has already done so.
For previous discussion of these issues see also:
US Senators Still Trying to Figure out Computers and Internet
Comments Off on Lack of Timely Congressional Public Disclosure is an Insult to the Voters
Posted in Congress, Democrats, Elections, Republicans
Tagged Citizens United. Public Disclosure Commission, Congressional races, Disclose Act, electronic campaign disclosure filing, FEC, Federal Elections Commission, Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act
Monday night US Representative Dave Reichert’s Mercer Island office was open until 9 PM helping seniors sign up for the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefits Program. Congressman Reichert is running for re-election in Washington’s 8th Congressional District. He is facing a strong challenge from Democrat Darcy Burner.
Reading his press release from last Thursday one almost could conclude that the Republicans in Congress passed this program as part of their re-election strategy. Make the program so complicated that Congressman Reichert has to have an:
“ongoing effort to assist seniors during the sign-up period. In addition to keeping his office open late, Congressman Reichert has sent over 125,000 pieces of mail to constituents that explains the program and provides sign-up information. He has made over 40,000 phone calls to seniors in his District about the program. He has held 16 workshops, helping seniors to sign-up and giving them access to the program’s experts.”
In an April 10, 2006 press release he announced workshops in Eatonville, Orting, Carnation, Bellevue and Boney Lake.
On May 3, 2006 , he announced additional workshops in Eatonville and Renton.
All this of course is paid for by the taxpayers. What I found intriguing was that “He has made over 40,000 calls to Seniors in his District” One has to wonder how he was able to get anything else done during this time in Congress or even have any time to spend with his family.
Assuming he only spent 2 minutes per constituent, which is short considering how absurdly complicated the program is, it would comprise some 1333 hours of his time. At 8 hours a day that’s some 166 days. If he did this for 5 days a week, he’s now spent some 33 weeks talking to Seniors or over half a year just on this one issue.
He must be getting tired. Maybe that’s the reason his press release makes no mention of extending the sign up time without a penalty. In fact one has to wonder why there is any penalty at all for signing up later. Isn’t this program supposed to benefit Seniors or is it meant to punish Seniors?
Of course we all know this program wasn’t really meant to help Seniors that much or it would have allowed for bulk buying of drugs to reduce costs to Seniors. Because in point of fact, the legislation is really a Prescription Drug Company Price Guarantee Act.
