We need rules for campaigns — this year.

(Continuing the policy of promoting diaries from officeholders and officeseekers, with some copy bumped below the fold – promoted by odum)

In a state known for optimism, cynicism is growing in Vermont. What used to be concerns about just Washington, DC are now coming to the Green Mountain State. Corporations misleading regulators and a perceived revolving door between the administration and embattled companies are creating uncertainty about the positive political traditions in our state.

Vermonters have tried to do something about these concerns. In the 90’s, I was proud to be a part of passing comprehensive campaign finance reform. Unfortunately, the US Supreme Court threw out our laws. More recently, this same Court took the egregious step of deciding that corporations have the unlimited ability to influence elections.

Vermont candidates have also attempted to set standards for transparency, including Governor Douglas’ repeated calls for financial disclosure by candidates running for statewide office. While many of us did not like the way it transpired, one thing was clear: Vermonters wanted that transparency.

All of this comes at a time when we are entering a very competitive campaign season for Vermont statewide offices. We currently have no laws on the books establishing campaign contribution limits, companies like Entergy that have enormous interest in the outcome of the race have been told they can spend as much as they want on influencing this election, and we have no laws outlining what and when a candidate should disclose about his or her personal finances. As a result, we find candidates focusing on issues of disclosure when they should be focusing on the other important issues facing our state.

 

That’s why I am calling on the Legislature today to continue Vermont’s tradition of reflecting our citizens’ faith in the democratic process and pass legislation to address the following critical issues:

1. Codify campaign finance laws. S.92 passed the Senate last year and must be a priority for this session. With the intensity of upcoming statewide races and groups outside of Vermont lining up to get involved, we need campaign finance laws that will stand up in court.

2. Add to this legislation a statute that will limit spending by any corporation that does business with the State of Vermont, directly or indirectly, and in a severable section, limit spending by any corporation that has a nexus with the State of Vermont. While this does not address all of the problems with the Supreme Court decision, constitutional lawyers have advised me that there is room in the Citizens United decision to allow limitations on those corporations with a direct or indirect contractual interest with a government. Vermont should push the limits of the decision, attempt to bring some sanity to our election process, and not allow large corporations to attempt to buy the next election. For large out-of-state companies like Entergy, a million dollar investment in attack ads would be a small sum to spend in order to avoid accountability for a cleanup and to enable continued operation in our state. With one candidate clearly aligned with Entergy, we need to be sure the rules clearly protect us from such a deluge. In the past, I would have simply asked Entergy to commit to not abusing the new loophole. Unfortunately, my trust that they will do the right thing, even if they say they will, has waned.

3. Pass “Douglas standard” legislation to clarify that all candidates for statewide office must disclose their personal financial interests. We have seen that Vermonters do want to know the financial profile and interests of their statewide candidates. Unfortunately, the lack of rules has led to uncertainty about when and what kind of disclosure is expected, giving advantages to some candidates over others. In this important election year, we need to pass legislation–the Douglas standard–requiring personal financial disclosure for all candidates as well as establishing clear rules for disclosure in order to bring us in line with most other states and the requirements for Federal candidates.

An open seat for Governor and Lt. Governor this year provides an opportunity for Vermonters to engage in the political process and carefully choose who will lead us into the next era. Unfortunately, if we do not act quickly on legislation to restore faith in the political process and prevent a large corporation with vested interests in our state from pouring money into Vermont to disrupt our democracy, a contest focused on the future and important issues is likely to be compromised. Moreover, our passion for participatory democracy, long a hallmark of Vermont, could be consumed by the darkness of cynicism.

Fortunately, some of the other candidates in the race for Governor have already voiced support for campaign finance reform. Today, I call on all of the statewide candidates, from all political parties, to come together to support these three legislative priorities and for the Legislature to act quickly.

In any contest, the most important element is to have clear rules. But this isn’t hockey or reality television. The democratic process itself is at stake.  

8 thoughts on “We need rules for campaigns — this year.

  1. I wish someone would acknowledge that Vermont campaign finance law has allowed not only indirect expenditures by corporations for decades, but actual direct contributions to campaigns by corporations.  See 17 V.S.A. sections 2801(6)and 2805(a).  Good or bad, the Citizens United case has absolutely no effect on Vermont state campaign law, so the warning of how the U.S. Supreme Court has now sullied Vermont’s election process are a little overwrought.  And, as we know, changing campaign laws in a campaign year creates a whole host of problems.

  2.  

    On a day when Deb jumps on the issue of the day for press attention…albeit about a month late in terms of leadership potential,

    Someone else jumps on the wagon of preserving the integrity of our elections….and it isn’t the Secretary of State, who supposedly is the point person for that issue.   ????

    Day late and an issue short…  It would seem that Mr. Dunn wins the issue of the day contest…  And with some really valid objectives…  

    There is more to running for office and gathering votes….. than gathering money and endorsements..

  3. to keep companies doing business with the state from playing politics. this should happen right away–partly because it would be fun to see the other side try to reason against it

  4. LOL…true.  It would be fun to see the other side try to weasel around it, but it would be interesting, for instance, to get more transparent laws to see how much Blue Cross or MVP is paying to keep health care reform at bay.  How many candidates is their money buying here?  

  5. Nanq, you’re right.  Had forgotten about that.  In 2011 Entergy can pretty fund buy any candidate they want to that is willing to sell to them, just like Blue Cross, MVP, IBM, etc.  And everyone knows that they will just as soon as they can.  

  6. Which has been proposed by Harvard Law Prof. Lawrence Tribe, as something which fits within the strict disclosure requirements that were upheld in the Citizens United decision. Upheld:

    …electioneering communications funded by anyone other than the candidate must disclose who is “responsible for the content of this advertising” and must display on screen “in a clearly readable manner” for at least 4 seconds the name and address or website of whoever funded the communication.

    Tribe’s recommendation:

    Those requirements should not only be enlarged – a blink of an eye or a sip of beer would suffice to make a four-second display useless – but should also be made much more specific. The disclaimer should have to include a statement by the corporate sponsor’s CEO, by name, providing information about how much of the corporation’s general treasury was  being expended in aggregate on the communication in question and certifying the CEO’s personal conclusion, as in Sarbanes-Oxley, that making the expenditure from general treasury funds, as opposed to making it through a corporate PAC, significantly advances the corporation’s business interest.

    In other words, while corporations are allowed to place whatever political ads they choose, they need to make public as part of the ad, information about who is paying for it, and must provide shareholders the information they need to determine whether or not they believe the company is acting in their interest.

    I particularly like this idea, because one of the arguments “for” the current court ruling, at least from right-wing apologists, is that shareholders can just complain or move their investments if they don’t like the company’s political views. However, this concept depends on the shareholders having perfect information about the company’s expenditures on political advertising – information that current accounting practices do not provide.

    The solution promoted by Professor tribe deals with that half of the “asymmetrical information” problem (one side has more info than the other).

    The other half is more difficult, and needs to be addressed as well:

    Most investment in the large corporations that can afford big $$ advertisements during election season, is not made by individual shareholders who have the power to move their money. It is instead made by large money management firms, investing basket-style funds, such as 401kKs and IRA’s. The individual investors in these baskets have no control over the contents of any given basket, and thus have no real control over which corporations receive their personal investment funds.

    This needs to be addressed – either by eliminating withdrawal penalties on 401k and other retirement investment options for those who choose to withdraw their funds for political speech reasons; or by providing a mechanism for individual investors to directly control the contents of their investment baskets.

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