Tag Archives: Senator Murray

Democrats Ask Murray and Cantwell to Support Electronic Filing of Campaign Disclosure

Posted on October 29th, 2009 | Comments Off on Democrats Ask Murray and Cantwell to Support Electronic Filing of Campaign Disclosure

Last night the King County Democrats unanimously passed a resolution asking Washington State’s two Senators to become co-sponsors of  legislation requiring US Senate candidates to join the electronic filing era of campaign disclosure.  Below is the text of the resolution:

Resolution in Support of S 482 requiring electronic filing of campaign disclosure information by U.S. Senate candidates

WHEREAS the U.S. Senate still does not require filing its campaign finance forms electronically; and

WHEREAS this hinders and delays the ability of the public to have timely access to important campaign finance data; and

WHEREAS the transfer of data to electronic form for filing would save taxpayers $250,000 a year according to the Campaign Finance Institute; and

WHEREAS S 482 – the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act has been introduced by Senator Feingold in February 2009 to require that all Senate candidates file designations, statements and reports in electronic form; and

WHEREAS candidates for the House of Representatives, President and Political Action Committees already file electronically; and

WHEREAS 41 other Senators are currently co-sponsors of this legislation; and

WHEREAS Washington State has been a leader in campaign finance disclosure statewide and nationally with the passage of I-276 in 1972; and
WHEREAS Washington State requires electronic filing for all candidates raising over $10,000; and

WHEREAS candidates filing for President who raise over $100,000 are already required to file monthly reports

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the King County Democrats urge Senator Patty Murray and Senator Maria Cantwell to become co-sponsors and work for passage of S 482 in time for next year’s U.S. Senate elections and that they sponsor an amendment requiring monthly reporting as is done for Presidential candidates and in Washington State.

Join with the King County Democrats and urge Senator Cantwell and Senator Murray to co-sponsor S 482 and work for its passage. You can e-mail them here:

Senator Maria Cantwell

Senator Patty Murray

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An Open Letter to Senator Patty Murray and Senator Maria Cantwell

Posted on May 26th, 2009 | 1 comment

Dear Senator Patty Murray and Senator Maria Cantwell:

Thirty-seven Senators currently are co-sponsors of S 482 – the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act. The bill requires candidates for US Senate “to file designations, statements and reports for campaign financing in electronic form.”

Both candidates for the US House of Representatives and for President file electronically. The Senate should join them in using the miracle of computers and electronic transmission of data.

I am surprised that you are not a co-sponsor of this bill and urge you to join as a co-sponsor. Washington State was a leader in campaign finance disclosure and still is.

Please add your support to S 482. The public deserves to have campaign finance reports available in a timely fashion.

It is both a waste of taxpayer dollars to send paper reports that need to be re-entered for filing and an unnecessary delay in the public’s right to know in a timely manner who is contributing to campaigns.

I also urge you to work to amend the bill to require monthly campaign reports like we have in Washington State for most candidates. Only reporting campaign contributions and expenditures every 3 months deprives the public of timely disclosure they have a right to know.

Steve Zemke
www.MajorityRules.org
May 25, 2009

see S 482 here.
see co-sponsors here.

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Senators Murray and Cantwell Vote for Another Tax Break for Wealthy

Posted on April 8th, 2009 | Comments Off on Senators Murray and Cantwell Vote for Another Tax Break for Wealthy

Maybe Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell are angling for the endorsement of the Seattle Times next time they’re up for election. They are certainly not working for most of the citizens in Washington State when they voted last week to raise the Federal estate tax exemption for the very wealthy.

Senators Murray and Cantwell joined forces with all 41 Republicans and 8 other Democrats in a Senate vote that would remove $91 billion over ten years from the Federal budget. As the blog Working Life said, “Ten Senate Democrats Lose Their Minds, Vote for Estate Tax Cut”

“Now, c’mon, this is entirely absurd. We already have the widest gap between rich and poor in many generations. Republicans (and some Democrats) are trying to cut the Administration’s proper and wise investments in infrastructure and wise energy efficiency programs. And, in the midst of all that, the Senate does what? Votes to cut the estate tax (which effects only the richest Americans) thanks to the votes of ten Senate Democrats. This is the definition of insanity.”

As the New York Times notes today in an editorial entitled “Guarding the Family Fortune” :

“…as the unemployment rate hit a 25-year high and nearly one in 10 Americans was receiving food stamps, 10 Democrats in the Senate joined all 41 Republican senators to cut estate taxes for the wealthiest families….With economic pain and suffering on the rise, how do the senators justify a big tax cut for multimillionaires?”

Who are the other Senators joining this Reagan/ Bush era philosophy of trickle down economics – that you can’t do enough to help the wealthy because they keep the county growing? They are Senators Lincoln Blanche (Arkansas), Max Baucus (Montana), John Tester (Montana), Evan Bayh (Indiana), Mary Landrieu (Louisiana), Ben Nelson (Nebraska), Bill Nelson (Florida), and Mark Pryor (Arkansas).

As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorites states:

“This proposal is both fiscally irresponsible — it would pave the way for a significant increase in long-term deficits and debt — and unnecessary to protect small businesses and farms, nearly all of which are already exempt from the tax under the 2009 estate tax rules, which President Obama has proposed to extend. The amendment also would lead to significant reductions in charitable contributions, while benefiting only the wealthiest 0.28 percent of estates.”

As the NY Times editorial cited above states:

“Under today’s estate tax, which is retained in both the House version of the budget and in President Obama’s version, 99.8 percent of estates will never owe any estate tax. That’s because the tax applies only to estates that exceed $7 million per couple or $3.5 million for individuals, and a vast majority of American families are not and never will be that wealthy. “

It seems to me that Senator Murray and Senator Cantwell are missing the larger picture. Washington State voters recently voted to retain the state estate tax to help fund schools. With the increased concentration of wealth in a very small percentage of the population, it’s time for the wealthy to give back some of the money they made thanks to benefits of the US economic system that made it possible. After all, they can’t spend it after they’re dead. But they can do whatever they want with it while they’re living.

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Why are Senators Murray and Cantwell Not Co-Sponsors of S 223?

Posted on September 27th, 2007 | Comments Off on Why are Senators Murray and Cantwell Not Co-Sponsors of S 223?

Senate Bill 223, the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act, is a simple bill only several sentences long. It would increase accountability of campaign disclosure to the public by requiring that candidates for the US Senate timely file their campaign finance reports electronically the same as candidates for the US House and candidates for President currently do.

Some 40 Senate members are sponsors of this bill, including Senators Hilary Clinton, Russ Feingold, Barack Obama, John F Kerry, Ron Wyden, Barbara Boxer, Joseph R Bidden, Jr, Dianne Feinstein, and Christopher Dodd to name a few. Conspicuously absent are Washington State Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell.

This week a third attempt to move the bill was stopped by Republican Senator John Ensign who filed an unrelated amendment that had not been discussed with a hearing. The amendment originated from the office of Republican Senator Mitch McConnell. It was to require outside organizations filing ethic complaints to disclose their donors. Previously McConnell was involved in holding up the bill and would not disclose who had put a hold on the bill. It seems he had. The amendment needs a separate hearing and is an attempt to stop S 223 from being passed.

Currently in this electronic age, the Senate remains back in the pre-computer and Internet days, filing the campaign paperwork by paper, which then has to be added back to the computer network for filing with the FEC or Federal Elections Commission. The result is a significant time lag in the availability of the public to see the disclosure reports.

As the Campaign Finance Institute reports “All S.223 would do is require Senate candidates and party committees to take information they already are required to collect and disclose, and which they already keep for their own files in electronic format, and send it on to the Secretary of the Senate as an electronic file. Instead, Senate committee now print the same information out on paper and the Federal Election Commission has to keypunch it all over again, at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars and months of wasted time.”

Washington state candidates have filed forms electronically for a number of years.

One major reform missing however in the Federal legislation is that currently campaigns reports are only filed every 3 months. Washington State for years has had monthly reporting of campaign finance reports. The public deserves better accountability and more timely disclosure than every 3 months. The Federal reporting should also be monthly.

You can contact Senator Patty Murray and Senator Maria Cantwell by clicking on their names. Send them an e-mail urging that they join S 223 as co-sponsors and help to get this needed disclosure measure passed. Urge they support monthly reporting also.

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Cantwell and Murray Almost Identical Say Public Interest Groups

Posted on August 18th, 2006 | Comments Off on Cantwell and Murray Almost Identical Say Public Interest Groups

Washington State Senators Cantwell and Murray could almost be identical twins if you look at how interest groups rate them. Project Vote Smart has lots and lots of information on our two Senators and one of the areas they do a great job on is a compilation of interest group ratings.

When you check the rating for Senator Maria Cantwell and Senator Patty Murray you won’t find a lot of differences. In fact you’ll find a lot of identical ratings by groups.

A lot of discussion of Senator Cantwell has been on the Iraq War. It is important to also look at how interest groups rate her on other issues like education, environment, civil rights, labor and peace. The comparison below is between Cantwell and Murray.

Before you decide to sit this election out, consider what type of ratings you would expect a Senator Mike McGavick to get from these same groups. Maybe you’ll decide it’s time to really help get Maria re-elected.

Organization …………………………………..Cantwell …………………Murray

NARAL ProChoice 2005……………………….100 ……………………… 75

Nat Right to Life 2005 ……………………………0…………………………0

Nat. Assoc of Wheat Growers 2005 ………..100 ……………………..100

Humane Society of US 2005 …………………100 ……………………..80

Nat Trust for Historic Preservation …………100 …………………….100

Americans for Tax Reform 2005 ………………25 ………………………15

US Chamber of Commerce 2005……………….56 ……………………..44

Am Civil Liberties Union …………………………78 ……………………..78

Nat Assoc for Adv of Colored People 2005….95 ………………………90

Human Rights Campaign 2003-2004 ……….88 ……………………..88

Leadership Council on Civil Rights …………….100 ………………….100

Eagle Forum 2005…………………………………….0 ………………………0

American Conservative Union …………………….0 ………………………0

Christian Coalition 2004 ……………………………0 ………………………0

National Education Assoc 2005 …………………….100 ………………….100

American Wilderness Coalition 2005 ………….100 ………………….100

League of Conservation Voters 2005 …………..90 …………………….95

Children’s Defense Fund 2005 …………………….89 …………………….100

Family Research Council 2004 ……………………0 ……………………….14

Peace Action 2005 …………………………………..89 ………………………89

Peace PAC 2005 ……………………………………….100 ……………………100

Am Assoc of Univ Women 2005 ………………….100 …………………….83

Nat Org for Women 2005 ………………………….100 …………………….75

US PIRG 2005 ………………………………………….95 ……………………..100

Gun Owners of America 2005 ……………………….0 …………………………0

Brady Camp to Prevent Gun Violence 2003 ……..100 ……………………90

Am Public Health Assoc ……………………………….90 …………………….90

Service Employees Int Union …………………………85 …………………….85

AFL-CIO ……………………………………………………79 ……………………..86

Americans for Democratic Action 2005 ………….95 ……………………..95

Alliance for Retired Americans ………………………100 …………………..100

Disabled American Vets 2005 ………………………..92 ……………………..92

Bread for the World 2003/2004 ……………………100 ……………………100

There are actually some areas, like women’s groups, that Cantwell seems to rate as more liberal than Murray. In the end though, the differences are probably single vote differences on an interest group’s list. As you can see, Senator Cantwell’s and Senator Murray’s interest group ratings very similar.

Washington State Democratic and public interest groups’ values and voting interests have been well represented in Congress by Senator Cantwell and Senator Murray. Washington State has a lot to lose if we don’t re-elect Senator Cantwell this year.

You can support Maria’s campaign by going to http://www.cantwell.com/ and volunteering or making a donation today.

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