Press Editorials
March 2009
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Yuma Sun - Sunshine Week: Senate should make campaign contributions transparent
Imagine if Google worked this way: You type in a search term, and, at Google headquarters, an army of workers in the search department printed out the contents of every responsive Web page, then hauled them in wheelbarrows to a results department, where another army of workers typed the contents of those pages back into their computers.
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Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch - Clear the Muck
Unlike their counterparts who run for the House -- not to mention candidates for president -- candidates for the U.S. Senate submit campaign-finance reports on paper, rather than electronically. They submit the paperwork to the Senate Office of Public Records, which then trucks it over to the Federal Election Commission, which then pays clerical staff to enter the information into electronic databases.
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Winston-Salem Journal - Making contributions transparent
Imagine if Google worked this way: You type in a search term, and, at Google headquarters, an army of workers in the search department printed out the contents of every responsive Web page, then hauled them in wheelbarrows to a results department, where another army of workers typed the contents of those pages back into their computers. Crazy? Indeed, but that's exactly how the Senate handles its campaign-finance reports.
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The Standard-Speaker - Do public business in the open
This is Sunshine Week, the annual effort to bring the activities of government at every level squarely into the public eye where they belong.
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The Standard-Speaker - State Senate records still in the dark
Tradition is regarded with reverence in the U.S. Senate, but it’s time for senators to put away the quill pens and parchment when it comes to telling Americans how much money they raise for their election campaigns.
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The (Petersburg, Va.) Progress-Index - More News
Tradition is regarded with reverence in the U.S. Senate but even that has its limits. It’s time for senators to put away the quill pens and parchment when it comes to telling Americans how much money they raise for their election campaigns.
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The Patriot Ledger - SUNSHINE WEEK: Senate should make campaign contributions transparent
Imagine if Google worked this way: You type in a search term, and, at Google headquarters, an army of workers printed out the contents of every responsive Web page, then hauled them in wheelbarrows to a results department, where another army of workers typed the contents of those pages back into their computers. Crazy? Indeed, but that's exactly how the Senate handles its campaign finance reports.
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The Knoxville News-Sentinel - Keep sunshine on officials' shoulders
Today begins Sunshine Week, the time when corporate and individual members of news organizations remind the public of the vital role they play in gathering and presenting information about the operations of local, state and federal governments and their various agencies - operations that, in one way or another, affect the lives of all of us.
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Birmingham News - A chance to increase government transparency Senators should be required to file electronic campaign finance reports
Here's an opportunity for Alabama's U.S. senators, Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby, to increase government transparency while saving taxpayer money, paper and time, to boot. They should sponsor the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act (SB482), which would require senators to do like members of Alabama's House delegation already do - file their campaign finance reports in electronic format.
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New York Times - The Cobwebbed Chamber
When will the Senate boot up and join the rest of us in the electronic data age? The chamber has barely moved beyond the quill pen era when it comes to disclosing vital information to voters about who’s financing senators’ election campaigns and in what amounts.
