Supporting A 21st Century Senate
Today the DailyKos community re-issued its call to support S.1508, the “Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act” which was originally introduced during the 108th Congress and was re-introduced on July 27, 2005.
JK is a co-sponsor of this legislation along with Senators Feingold, Cochran, Durbin, McCain, as well as Senators Landrieu, Lugar, Dodd, McConnell, Salazar, Graham, Isakson, Cornyn, Murkowski, Hutchison, Lieberman, Allard, Grassley and Chafee.
It provides for:
• Mandatory electronic filing for designations, statements or reports pertaining to Senate elections by persons or committees having or expecting to have aggregate contributions or expenditures in excess of $50,000 a year; and
• Forwarding to the Federal Election Commission of electronic designations, statements or reports filed with the Secretary of the Senate within 24 hours of receipt, and for accessibility of such reports to the public on the Internet.
<!-more->
For those who aren’t sure why S.1508 is necessary, the Campaign Finance Institute has prepared some background info:
- Under current law which has applied to all federal House and Presidential candidates, Political Action Committees (including Senate leadership PACs), and party committees (except the national Senate ones) since 2001, searchable information on all contributions and expenditures is available to the public via the FEC website within 24 hours. Since the law does not apply to Senate candidates and party committees, the same information on their finances is conveniently available only after long delays (up to a month for all contributions) or never (for expenditures). Citizens are forced to go page by page through thousands of pages of filings to uncover information relevant to voting decisions, ensuring democratic accountability and confidence in government.
- As late as October 30, just three days before the November 2004 election, the public was unable to search for FEC-reported contributions information on 85% of the individual contributions to Senate campaigns from July 1 through September 30. Nor could it search for any of the contributions received in September by the Democratic and Republican Senatorial committees.
- Senate paper reports have to be hand entered into FEC electronic databases, largely by a paid contractor. This process is not only time consuming but replete with human error. For example, in the 2004 FEC database, Sen. Ron Wyden is shown as contributing $2.3 million to the Democratic Senatorial Committee whereas inspection of his paper report reveals that he donated only $200,000.
John Kerry has been a leader in campaign finance reform. In his first Senate race in 1984, he persuaded all the primary challengers to run the first PAC-donation-free senate race in the country’s history.
13 Comments
New comments for this entry are closed.
Excellent call! It goes to accountability, which the voters essentially called for when they went to the polls this time.
Hopefully, the Senate agrees and passes S.1508.
Thanks for the update! I will be sure to contact my Senators.
Thanks for the heads up about this one. Campaign finance reform may not be the sexiest kind of legislation on the planet, but it’s for darn sure some of the most important if we’re ever going to get out of this distorted mess we have to wallow through every two and four years. I’ve already emailed my own state Senators to let them know how strongly I felt about their getting on the right side of this issue by supporting this bill.
And for those of you ought there who might not know how to find contact info your own Senators—or, for that matter, how to find any kind of info about practically any level of government or public database that that affects you, from local dogcatcher to national party leader, from gas prices in your area to energy policies in the halls of Congress, here is one truly awesome omnibus site you’ll want to make sure you bookmark and visit often:
http://www.firstgov.com
Anything you want to know about anything that your taxed dollars might be affecting or being affected by—and trust me, I do mean *anything*—you can find by way of the FirstGov portal. It’s one of the richest comprehensive information sources that I know of, and also one of the least well known. I bookmarked this web site several years ago, and now I find myself drawing upon one or another of its resources practically every day. And so should you.
because every now and again the government actually does do something right,
Otter
I love the last paragraph. That’s very cool. And isn’t it true that Kerry continues to run without PAC donations in his campaigns?
I’ll have to go and post this over at Democratic Underground and see what they have to say about it as well.
Heads Up People, Our Senator Kerry will appear on Chris Wallace this Sunday 11/19 at 10:00 am our local station is 25 for MA…nice to see him out making the news circuit, lets see if Mr. Wallace is fair , hopefully Senator Kerry can get back out there strong, confident and ready to fight for 08”....Together lets’ stand behind him for ALL OUR FUTURES…America needs a LEADER and for many years I’ve watched Senator Kerry take the first steps forward, doing what was right (excuse me), correct not always popular, but in Americas best interest….Let’s All Stand Strong, Let’s All Stand Behind Our True Hope….Go John Kerry, Go All The Way To The White House…Kerry “08”.....BlueRose
Yep, Blue Rose. I’m with ya. Can’t wait to see Sen Kerry bring some much needed truth to Fox News and give Wallace a good a** whoppin’ if he steps out of line.
Very bold move, to face the enemy on the front lines like this. But then, I expected no less from our Senator Kerry.
Go for it, Senator! We’ve got your back. Get out there and give the Fox viewers a good dose of TRUTH, and let’s see if they can handle it.
For those who are relatively new to the political world, Sara at The Next Hurrah has written a post that opens up a very interesting perspective on the Democratic party and how it is actually constructed.
Her post goes onto discuss why the 50-state strategy made a difference within this structure.
Some of the comments are equally enlightening in how the Democratic parties work in different locales. It’s a great short taste of Democratic party history.
If you miss the morning broadcast of Fox News Sunday on your local Fox station, it’s rebroadcast on Fox News Channel (cable) at 6 pm (at least in Boston area).
I can’t wait to see this! A wonderful bold move, Sen. Kerry! We’re behind you all the way!
I’m glad to hear JK is heading to Fox News tomorrow. I’m sure we’ll hear strong rebuttals against any smears and intimidation they try to do.
I am sure we’ll hear much more about the Iraq solutions, Gray, the Baker Commission, and more.
Hang tough, Senator. Be firm. Stand true to your beliefs. When you do this, then non-Koolaid drinkers will have to at least pay attention.
And may as well keep it simple for them too. You know how they love their soundbites!
Yeah, what she said.
Seriously, Senator…
I hope that by this time tomorrow all the talking hacks on the cable snooze shows are yammering on about how you got in a certain so-called news broadcaster’s face and into his personal space, and how you put him on the defensive by giving him a piece of your mind instead of letting him try to parse your ideas into pieces instead.
I mean, look at how well that worked for the last guy who tried it.
:0)
give ‘em hell johnny,
Otter
It is Kerry and Gingrich tomorrow isn’t it?
Newt considers himself quite a historian. Lots of books on the Civil War.
I hope I get to watch it. See Kerry carve him up like a Thanksgiving Turkey.
Do you think they will talk about Newt telling his wife he is leaving her when she was on her death bed? Nice timing…Isn’t a Newt a lizard?
Is there some significance with one of the slimiest people in the country has a name to fit?
Yeah, I know..not very politically correct…me bad.
Thanks, battlebob, for a good Sunday morning laugh : )
I hope JK’s FOX appearance will be posted somewhere on the internets at some point (jk.com would be a nice place. :) ) My basic cable package doesn’t include FOX which is only a problem if Sen. Kerry is on. If nothing else, I look forward to the post-interview discussions here and on DU.
Good luck, Senator!