We should have known that this nice, clean election was too good to last.
There's a bill that has passed the state House that would eliminate the simple requirement that campaigns file lists of donors electronically. Instead, the lawmakers propose marching bravely into the past, requiring only paper filings.
Which would, of course, make any funny stuff -- washing over-the-limit donations through other donors, giving as Joe Q. RichGuy and J.Q. RichGuy, for example -- sooo much harder for the press and the city Board of Ethics to spot.
The Committee of Seventy is outraged, as it should be. So is Philadelphia Forward.
ETA: This is even worse than it seemed. Here's why we are talking about undoing a key concept in campaign finance reform, according to Bob Warner's story in Friday's Daily News: Computers are hard on old folks who work on campaigns.
And that's what the bill's sponsors say. Bob quotes co-sponsor Rosita Youngblood:
"I received numerous complaints from treasurers ... It was a hardship upon them, having to file electronically. In a lot of cases you have seniors that are treasurers; they're not computer-literate."
The other co-sponsor, John Sabatina Jr., is hardly more charitable:
"My concern is the little old guy who has to go downtown to two-finger-type his contributions."
He goes on to tell a story about his treasurer which certainly doesn't reflect well on his campaign; I hope Sabatina's treasurer is going to take issue with being called barely functional by his boss. But that's not the real point. The point is, these two are successfully sneaking a bill through the legislature that undermines one of the major reasons that the mayoral campaign was as clean as it was.
According to a statement from the Board of Ethics, the bill "would essentially gut the city's 2003 campaign finance law and reverse the progress Philadelphia has made toward greater transparency and accountability ...and preventing large campaign contributions from corrupting city government."
This is a sneaky, dirty bill. It's a holiday week, people. There was no public hearing on this bill. One House member, Delaware County's Greg Vitali, has already said the bill was not described accurately to state representatives.
Let's hope the State Senate doesn't allow the wool to be pulled over their eyes as easily.
Comments (8)
Blaming it on old people...how pathetic. Of course, none of these campaigns have young, savvy volunteers who can take an hour a week at most to type. A$$holes.
Posted by Anonymous | July 6, 2007 7:01 AM
Just goes to show that the forces for stagnation and corruption are still strong. I hope someone is keeping a scorecard.
So far we have:
Fattah, Dougherty, Rosita Youngblood, and John Sabatina. Anyone who desires good, transparent government should remember those names.
Posted by Roman | July 6, 2007 11:08 AM
Hey let's call on the one person who totally understands Ethics - Johnny Doc!
Right now- he is a little busy getting lawyered up, but I am sure that he can provide us all the answers on good governement...right?
Posted by Crimestopper | July 7, 2007 10:24 AM
Go Go... Go Corruption and the FBI. Heeehee Heeee.
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