As the uphill fight by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) to hang on to his Senate seat reaches its final stages, the money is flowing in so fast to his reelection campaign that there’s hardly even time for neat handwriting.
For the past couple of hours I’ve been poring over 165 pages of handwritten reports filed by the campaign with the Federal Election Commission – the 48-hour notice reports that outline the contributions received between July 20 and August 3rd.
Continue readingHidden in Plain Sight
I began this day with an IM conversation with Larry Makinson about trying to get our hands on the most recently campaign contribution reports for the Lieberman-Lamont race. It dawned on us that the records could be pretty interesting. My thought had been to simply to direct our readers to the reports that were on line and let them search around. I guess we should have known it wouldn't be that easy. Our dialogue is instructive. Imagine if two novices were trying to find this information.
Ellen (9:00:14 AM): Got a blog idea for you this morning!
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Losing the Initiative
With Congress finally clearing out of town for a month’s recess, I thought I could relax a little, but then I saw the headline in Saturday’s Oregonian – the state’s largest paper, based in Portland: “N.Y. Cash Colors Oregon Ballot.”
Okay, I know this is money in politics at the state level – and in a state, moreover, that has something the federal government doesn’t have: ballot initiatives. But if you think congressional election races are tainted by big money, just take a look at what’s happened to the initiative process in those states – mostly west of the Missisippi – that allow them.
Continue readingCongress’s Wage Until the Election
I think this post from Kate O'Beirne at the Corner, entitled "Time is Running Out," is the sort of information that might surprise most members of the public if it were more widely disseminated:
Make that HAS RUN OUT - for judicial confirmations, immigration reform, or much of anything before the elections. When Congress gets back from it's August recess after Labor Day there will only 14 legislative days, what with no voting on Mondays and Fridays, before leaving town on September 29th for the elections. Someone should calculate congressmen's hourly wage.Continue reading
USA Today: Government Accounting Irresponsible and Inscrutable
In demonology, apparently, GAAP is “a mighty Prince and Great President of Hell, commanding sixty-six legions of demons... [H]e can cause love or hate and make men insensible and invisible. . . . According to a few authors he can make men ignorant.” In business, GAAP is Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. According to a USA Today story today, these principles are not followed by the US Government, which is more inclined to stick with methods that make men ignorant:
The federal government keeps two sets of books. Continue reading
Enough Already: Money Will Not Be an Object
The 2006 elections are shaping up to be the most troublesome kind for political practitioners: unpredictable. What makes me say that this early in the season is a new report from the Campaign Finance Institute, a non-profit research group in Washington that takes a rigorous academic look at the latest trends in political financing.
They’ve been looking at the latest FEC reports on spending in congressional races and found that in competitive districts – those relatively few spots on the map where the seat may be winnable by either party – challengers are raising ample sums to take on the incumbents, as are candidates from both parties in close districts with open seats.
Continue readingLet‘s Play Hide the Subpoena
It’s August here in Washington -- although if it weren’t for the classical architecture and the lobbyists wearing reflective sunglasses you’d think it was Pakistan from the temperature -- and members of Congress are fleeing the city, running back to their districts to do anything that will help their reelection chances with an electorate that’s looking for head’s to roll (or as President Bush might call it, to have their “accountability moment”). Some candidates may have an easier time than others. For instance, Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) is running uncontested allowing him to go on The Colbert Report and proclaim that he enjoys cocaine because it’s a fun thing to do. On the other hand we have another Floridian, Rep. Katherine Harris (R) who is running to unseat Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.).
Continue readingNo Access Like Inside Access
Inside access is the name of the game in Washington lobbying, and an item in the “Heard on the Hill” column in today’s Roll Call (subscription required) shows the lengths some lobbyists are willing to go to to get it. Specifically, Rebecca Cox, a lobbyist for Continental Airlines and the wife of former Congressman (and now SEC Chairman) Christopher Cox (R-Calif.).
Like all congressional spouses, Rebecca Cox was issued a special pin that gives her access to parts of the Capitol complex normally closed off to the public. She’s still entitled to wear that pin, since her husband resigned his seat during the current session of Congress.
Continue readingMuck Doesn’t Scare Moms
Over the years of my own mucking around in the issue of political influence I've tried a lot of ways of connecting the issue to various constituencies that I thought should have a natural interest in the undue influence of political contributors on their lawmakers. And that strategy has gained lots of adherents to the notion that big money (campaign contributions, lobbying expenditures, etc.) skews national priorities and policies. Environmentalists certainly believe it. So too advocates for less oil dependent energy policies and a host of other issues where big money is lined up against the community interest.
Continue readingMillionaires and the Minimum Wage
Cynicism is a human-borne disease that is caused by a variety of factors, one of which includes paying close attention to the actions of politicians in crafting laws.
If you were up and awake at 1:41 a.m. Saturday morning and watching the roll call vote in the House of Representatives on C-SPAN, your cynicism levels would no doubt have leaped alarmingly.
In that vote, the House attached a double-edged amendment to an overhaul of the nation’s pension policies. On the one hand, it included a $2.10-an-hour raise in the minimum wage, to be phased in over the next three years – a popular idea with the public, according to recent polls. On the other hand, it slashed the rate on estate taxes for multi-millionaires – an even more popular idea if your net worth exceeds $5 million.
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