Posts about Campaign Finance

Their article by Ryan Sibley also shows many other interesting statistics, such as who got money from outside the region, the balance of corporate and individual contributions (Anita Bonds and Michael Brown got only about half individual contributions, while it's nearly 100% for Silverman), and more.

Sibley also notes that while DC's Office of Campaign Finance releases computer-readable data files with contribution information, some data is not in those files, like which candidate goes with a campaign committee. That's in PDFs, but PDF data isn't usable in mash-ups without human work.

What do you notice?

New tax plan for Virginia: Governor Bob McDonnell proposes eliminating the state sales tax. He would make up the revenue by a 50% tax on hybrid or electric cars, organic produce, reusable grocery bags, and bicycle inner tube replacements. Observers now consider him a shoo-in for the 2016 GOP Presidential primary.

Congestion solved: The Texas Transportation Institute found that lost jobs from sequestration improved congestion. "Therefore, the logical policy for transportation must be further job loss," said Tim Lomax. Plus, Stockton, "foreclosure capital of the world," has the nation's lowest congestion, making it a clear model to emulate.

Where's the birth certificate?: Donald Trump is offering a reward for anyone who can prove DC Councilmember McDuffie isn't a "native Washingtonian." Stronghold resident McDuffie owns the house he was raised in and says he was born here, but no incontrovertible proof was immediately available after a 5-minute Google search.

Metro becoming more self-service: As part of its efforts to create a more "self-service" system in the Momentum plan, Metro will replaces all escalators with stairs and convert trains and buses to a Flintstone's-style power system.

Examiner will keep going: The Washington Examiner has reversed course and will continue its current publishing format. "Once we saw how upset our editorial style made David Alpert, we figured we were doing our job and had to continue," said editor Stefan Schmitt. The paper will, however, still fire Kytja Weir and Liz Essley, as both sometimes had positive things to say about transit.

Cheh apologizes: After weeks of speculation and inquiries from the local press, Mary Cheh relented and issued a letter of apology for her completely legal campaign fundraising activities. "DC residents have come to expect so much more of their elected officials," said DC voter Amy Zoneger.

We asked the candidates to give their positions on 6 ethics proposals:

• Ban or limit outside employment
  
• Eliminate or constrain constituent service funds
  
• Ban corporate contributions to campaigns
  
• Ban "bundling" from multiple entities controlled by same person
  
• Ban contributions by contractors and/or lobbyists who do business with DC
  
• Forbid free or discounted legal services, travel gifts, sports tickets for councilmembers

Silverman touted her work on Initiative 70 pushing to enshrine the third of these into law. She, Frumin, Patrick Mara, John Settles, and Michael Brown all also endorsed public financing of elections. Paul Zukerberg explicitly opposed it; while we don't know why voters chose as they did, perhaps most of you disagreed and that contributed to his 6th place finish.

Michael Brown, meanwhile, opposed banning outside employment and changes to constituent service funds. He also did not address the proposals involving monetary or in-kind campaign contributions. As a consequence, 47% of you said he did not answer the question while giving him the lowest finish of any candidate on any question thus far on Let's Choose DC.

This week, we're asking about school truancy. See the responses and vote now!

Another line of attack holds that banning direct contributions will just push corporations to use super PACs to influence DC elections. Jack Evans, an official with strong fundraising from corporations, has leveled this criticism, and today professional political operative Chuck Thies espoused it as well.

Super PACs are all the rage these days on the federal electoral scene. Corporations use them to channel unlimited amounts of money to support or oppose political candidates. But super PACs have not played any substantial role in local or state elections where direct corporate contributions have been illegal for many years. Instead, with the exception of one outlier, they have played no role at all.

A larger and more conservative neighbor, Pennsylvania, has had a statewide ban on corporate contributions for decades, long before Citizens United. This ban covers every state elected official from the governor down to lowliest state representative, but you would be hard pressed to find a single super PAC contribution to expenditure on behalf of any state candidate.

In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, another state that has banned corporate contributions since long before Citizens United, you'll find the same thing. Nothing. There is no evidence of a single super PAC contributing to supporting a non-federal candidate.

The list goes on. North Carolina, Michigan, Colorado, and Iowa to name a few. All prohibit corporate contributions, but none have had any super PAC involvement with state candidates.

Wisconsin is the only outlier. There, anti-labor Republican Governor Scott Walker faced an ultimately unsuccessful recall effort in a battle that made—and at times dominated—national headlines as a fight between pro- and anti-worker forces. This highly charged and highly symbolic fight attracted the attention of super PACs.

But to call Wisconsin an outlier is an understatement given the charged and symbolic nature of the recall effort there. It is unlikely in the extreme that such a situation would replicate itself here in DC. The super PAC phenomenon created by Citizens United that has been limited to high-profile federal elections, not state or local contests. Even many, if not most federal candidates never come into contact with super PACs.

Politicians and pundits who cite this issue are doing little more than fear-mongering. Many benefit personally from the current status quo, because they have a fundraising advantage today thanks to corporate contributions or work for candidates who pay their salaries with such money.

These folks are not willing to seek help for their addiction to corporate cash or to help restore public trust in the District. The voters should pay them no heed.

The organizers and volunteers have to get the signatures of 5% of DC registered voters, including 5% in at least 5 of the 8 wards, on physical petition sheets. One person circulating the petition has to physically witness your signature. There are also only a few weeks left to get over the threshold, and every signature counts.

This weekend, volunteers will be collecting petitions at these locations. More may be added as well, so sign the pledge so we can tell you if there's a new location near you.

Saturday, June 16:

• DC Solar Flare, Woodson High School in Ward 7, 9 am-4:30 pm
  
• Tour de Fat, Yards Park in Near Southeast, 9 am-4 pm
  
• One City Summer Kickoff, Banneker Rec Center in Columbia Heights, 2 pm-6 pm

Sunday, June 17:

• Bloomingdale Farmers Market, First and R NW, 9 am-1 pm
  
• Dupont Circle Farmers Market, 9 am-1 pm
  
• Takoma Farmers Market, 10 am-2 pm

Initiative 70 doesn't ban anything that's not already illegal under federal law and in 22 states. DC's law allows those who have several different LLCs or other incorporated businesses, like infamous contractor Jeffrey Thompson, to circumvent the usual campaign finance limits by donating the maximum amount from each different business. This also obscures the source of campaign cash to everyone except the candidate, who knows full well the person they owe for the cash.

Want to do more? There are lots of community events that need volunteers to collect signatures, or you can even just get a petition to bring to a party or other event and get signatures from people you know. Sign up to volunteer today!

But it can't make the ballot simply because seems like a good thing to do. We need the valid signatures and addresses of 5% of DC registered voters on petition sheets we give to the DC Board of Elections and Ethics by early July, including 5% percent of the voters in 5 of the 8 wards.

And we can't just put some on-line petition on Facebook or Twitter to do it. We need to do it the old-fashioned way by collecting signatures in person, with the circulator of the petition witnessing the signature of each voter that signs our sheets.

We need Initiative 70 for the good of our city, but Initiative 70 also needs you. We need DC residents who believe in fairness and an ethical government to commit a little time to helping us gather the necessary signatures. In every ward, DC Public Trust, the organization we formed to pass Initiative 70, has weekly events at supermarkets and farmers' markets.

This weekend, for example, we'll be at the Petworth farmers' market in Ward 4 tomorrow, Glover Park Day in Ward 3 on Saturday, and the Dupont farmers' Market in Ward 2 on Sunday. Just 70 minutes of your week for Initiative 70 will help us collect the signatures we need to make the ballot.

Please sign up to volunteer online. Want to do something in your neighborhood? I will put you in touch with your ward coordinator.

Will Initiative 70 clean up DC politics entirely? Sadly, it won't. But as a longtime observer of local politics, I believe it is important to put into law because it addresses two glaring problems: a lack of transparency in who's giving and the overt evasion of our individual contribution limits.

LLCs, limited liability companies that fill our city's campaign coffers, play a game of peek-a-boo with our campaign finance laws. They are able to hide behind legal paperwork so we can't see the money flowing from one parent donor, but when the checks are handed over at a fundraiser it's pretty clear who is giving.

This has become an easy way to evade our individual contribution limits, which means that District contractor Jeffrey Thompson—whose companies profit from tens of millions in District contracts—can return the favor during campaign season.

About a month ago, I was collecting signatures at an event attended by Mayor Gray. I asked the Mayor to add his name to the thousands of DC residents who wanted a fairer local campaign finance system. He did not, explaining he had his own legislation he was going to put forward May 15. That day has come and gone without any proposal.

But as I told the Mayor, I don't think his efforts and ours are mutually exclusive. They are complimentary. Let's put Initiative 70 on the ballot, let's debate Mayor Gray's proposal—but let's do something to address what is a clear problem.

If we don't take action, we'll just keep the US Attorney busy. And that's not good for DC.

Please sign up now to help DC Public Trust and clean up DC politics. And Mayor Gray, I'm happy to meet you anytime to collect your signature.