Darkened windows on the Clinton library
By Josh Zaharoff
Posted on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 04:08:37 PM EST
USA Today's editorial board makes the case for disclosure of the donor list for the $500 million Clinton Presidential Library. That is an enormous amount for someone to be raising from friends, business partners, foreign governments and interested parties who are either barred from making campaign contributions or limited to the $2,300 maximum. Because of the former president's unusual position and the sheer size of this conduit into a potential presidential administration, the complete list of donors should be made public. Read more on the flip. Senate: No Disclosure For Us
By Ed Davis
Posted on Wed Sep 26, 2007 at 06:12:44 PM EST
Ensign Receiving Tech Award
The Senate, a week after denying the vote to half million DC residents, this week denied Americans full access to vital information about their campaign contributions. Once again, a single Senator stopped a simple bill that would require Senate candidates to file their campaign finance disclosure reports electronically and that those reports be posted on the internet. The Senate's traditions and rituals are sometimes entertaining and cute, but this is just bad policy. Who did it this time? Senator John Ensign (R-NV), pictured at the right receiving, of all things, a technology award. It's probably just from some Washington special interest group and basically meaningless, but the irony kills. Here's what the WaPo said about it: THEY SAY three times is a charm -- except when it comes to getting a common-sense bill through the Senate by unanimous consent that would require its members and candidates to file their campaign finance reports electronically. Here's what my very serious friends at the Campaign Finance Institute said: He certainly should not be obstructing a long-considered and long-delayed bill that would strengthen the Senate's role as a democratically accountable institution. And, for what it's worth, here's what I said about it awhile ago.
The ethics process must be open
 By Bob Edgar
Posted on Thu Jul 12, 2007 at 02:52:26 PM EST
This article was published as an op-ed in Roll Call.
While the bipartisan ethics task force led by Rep. Mike Capuano (D-Mass.) has not yet voted on a proposal, details of a draft have surfaced that include the creation of an independent ethics panel that would be part of the House ethics process.
Such a panel would provide four sorely needed elements now missing: public access to the ethics process; independent preliminary investigation of all complaints filed; public disclosure of actions and findings; and accountability on the part of the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct for its actions. This is a solid proposal and a step forward in addressing the lack of enforcement and transparency in the House ethics process as well as making the ethics committee and indeed the entire House of Representatives more accountable for its actions.
The draft proposal would open the ethics process by allowing an individual or group outside of Congress to file a complaint. That alone would end the ethics "truce" fostered by existing rules that allow only House Members to file an ethics complaint. That has resulted in Members refusing to file complaints out of fear of political retaliation.
States roundup
By Josh Zaharoff
Posted on Thu May 24, 2007 at 03:25:54 PM EST
As a group fighting for transparency, we're not about to hide our own successes--so enjoy this latest Common Cause news from around the country:
The US Senate Does Not Believe in Computers, or the Internet
By Ed Davis
Posted on Fri Jan 12, 2007 at 04:56:21 PM EST
This is one of those niche issues that pops up in Washington regularly - and helps keep the government in low regard around the country. Electronic disclosure - anyone campaigning for the US House, President and most major state offices, and many local offices for that matter, must file their campaign finance reports electronically. But if you're running for the US Senate, you file on paper. Here's how campaign finance expert Michael Malbin described the process: The current situation is absurd. Senate campaigns keep their contribution records electronically anyway. What happens next is like a reporting machine designed by the old cartoonist, Rube Goldberg. As it stands now, Senate campaigns take their own electronic records, print them out on paper, ship the paper (cumulatively thousands of pages' worth) to the Secretary of the Senate, which the Secretary then copies to send to the Federal Election Commission. The FEC then pays six figures of taxpayers' money to hire a contractor to retype the information into an electronic format! Bizarre. Unbelievable. If the new Senate leadership doesn't get this fixed right away, you have to wonder about all their promises on tougher, more complicated issues.
Sunlight and a No-Brainer Reform
By Celia Wexler
Posted on Tue Sep 19, 2006 at 10:51:38 AM EST
At a time when the Congress has absolutely earned its "do-nothing" title, the Senate at least could make a tiny step towards redemption by passing a small but significant reform. "The Campaign Disclosure Parity Act," S. 1508, is a very brief no-brainer piece of legislation, bipartisan through and through.
The legislation would right a longtime disclosure wrong. Senators, unlike their House counterparts, are not required to file their campaign finance reports electronically. Instead, they report on paper, and then the pages and pages of contributors are imputed manually by the folks at the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
How's this for refreshing?
By Kirstin Ellison
Posted on Thu Aug 03, 2006 at 12:23:36 PM EST
We hear so much about sneaky lawmakers these days that I thought I'd share some nice refreshing quotes from a couple of Colorado politicians. This week was the filing deadline for financial disclosure statements for city employees, and they include listings of gifts and freebies received. For example, my favorite-named American mayor, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, got free U2 tickets. But what I took away from this Rocky Mountain News article is the pleasure of reading politicans speaking favorably about transparency.
Lindy Eichenbaum Lent, the mayor's spokeswoman, said Hickenlooper "feels it goes with the territory" of being an elected official.
"Mayor Hickenlooper firmly believes that transparency is vital to public trust, and public trust is vital to everything that we try to do here in city government," she said.
For gifts, such as tickets and meals, only items worth more than $25 have to be reported. But City Attorney Cole Finegan, who is also the mayor's chief of staff, listed them all...
..."I obviously overdisclosed because I listed all of the breakfasts, lunches and dinners, including those that I paid for and those under $25," he said. "But I wanted to be as open and transparent as possible."
Wow. Wouldn't it be nice to see such attitude at all levels of government, and about all issues - not just those required by law?
New Campaign Finance Data in New York
By Liam Arbetman
Posted on Wed Jul 19, 2006 at 12:40:52 PM EST
Monday night was the last chance for New York State Campaign Finance filers to get their disclosure reports in to the State Board of Elections (SBOE) and the NY political blogosphere has been abuzz with all kinds of details regarding the new disclosure info. Here is some more info to help reporters, activists, and other curious parties navigate the tricky waters of the New York State campaign finance system.
The files below have been updated based on JUL06 data file that was posted by the SBOE on their website at about 6:00PM yesterday. While it certainly doesn't contain ALL of the filers yet--people can be late and amendments can be filed--it is the most current data available.
There are three different sets of data:
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