MINNEAPOLIS – (Mint Press) – “Voters have been betrayed. I can’t see how Christian conservative voters can believe in Michele Bachmann. This issue questions her judgment, and her integrity as a politician,” said whistleblower Dr. Peter Waldron. In recent weeks, campaign funding has come under the spotlight with the public disgrace of former Democratic Representative Jesse L Jackson Jr, financial investigation of former U.S. Rep. David Rivera and complaints filed with Federal Election Commission on MichelePAC. Can any supportive voter be sure that the money they raise for a political campaign doesn’t end up in politician’s bank accounts?
Campaign finance has been widely debated by the U.S. Supreme Court, lobbyists and pressure groups, each setting their agenda over the rights and wrongs of current laws giving corporations the same rights as individuals and allowing corporations to donate unlimited money to political campaigns. Rarely discussed in this conversation is the issue of how to regulate and police campaign finance, and whether the Federal Election Commission (FEC) has the will and resources to investigate cases.
Critics of the Federal Election Commission have regularly questioned the lack of prosecutions and investigations that this commission oversees. Watchdog advocates such as Democracy 21 say “the biggest share of the blame for the FEC’s problems rests with its three Republican appointees, who have consistently blocked the agency’s professional staff from pursuing enforcement matters.”
It is this resistance to investigate campaign funding that has led to some politicians abusing and defrauding the system and has created a culture of mistrust in politics.
No transparency in spending campaign money
Michele Bachman’s 2012 campaign is currently being examined by the Federal Election Commission. Whistleblower Dr. Peter Waldron filed a complaint alleging campaign finance violations involving her presidential campaign and the independent political action committee – MichelePAC.
Waldron joined the Michele Bachmann campaign believing in her Evangelical Christian values in politics. With a strong reputation with the evangelicals, Waldron’s job was to mobilize Christian conservatives support for Michele Bachmann. Disillusioned by the campaign, Waldon has made allegations that the Bachmann campaign has withheld payments to him and other staffers who refused to sign confidentiality agreements.
Waldron also alleges that the campaign hid payments to Iowa State Campaign Chairman Kent Sorenson, a state senator who left the ailing Bachmann campaign to lead the insurgent campaign of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul. Under Iowa senate rules, Waldron claims that Sorenson could not be able to be paid work for both parties contesting each other.
State Senator Kent Sorenson has repeatedly refuted the allegation in statements to the press, he vehemently denied wrongdoing, calling a state ethics complaint filed against him false and absurd.
The investigation of MichelePAC revealed FEC records showing that the campaign paid fundraising consultant Guy Short more than $104,580 through his Colorado-based company, C&M Strategies, between July and November of 2011. At the same time, MichelePAC, the organization that Short also managed, was paying him an average of $5,000 a month.
Short, who had worked in Bachmann’s congressional office and also on her 2012 congressional campaign, told campaign workers at the time that he was volunteering on the Bachmann presidential campaign. Others were asked to do the same as the campaign limped through the final days of the Iowa caucuses.
But the FEC records show that MichelePAC made two separate $20,000 payments to Short on Dec. 6 and Jan. 3, a time when he was supervising operations for the Iowa campaign as Bachmann’s national political director, which is not typically a volunteer position.
While Short continued to get paid, others agreed to forgo checks during the Christmas season. Among them were Waldron and a half-dozen other workers who are still owed money from the campaign. “To me, that was unconscionable,” Waldron said.
Michele Bachmann is just one of many cases that the FEC has had to file for investigation, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that the FEC will enforce any allegations of fraudulent dealings.
Problems with Federal Election Commission
The main problem with the FEC is how the commission works. The FEC is generally made up of three members from each major party — each member decides whether an investigation is warranted. For any investigation, the commission needs four members to agree — unfortunately as the Republicans on the commission vote along party lines, it’s impossible to get an agreement for investigation.
In recent years, the agency has become completely dysfunctional. The three Republican commissioners on the six-member FEC have made clear that they are ideologically opposed to the campaign finance laws, and, as a result, have repeatedly refused to enforce the laws. In the 2012 election, candidates and political operatives were free to conduct campaign finance activities with little concern that the campaign finance laws would be enforced. We have reached the point where we have the illusion of campaign finance laws because in reality, there is little or no enforcement of these laws.
Pocketing campaign money
When Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. pocketed money from his campaign funds, he obviously was not concerned with the law enforcement of the FEC.
Jesse L. Jackson Jr., the former Democratic representative from Illinois, pleaded guilty last week to one felony fraud count in connection with his use of $750,000 in campaign money to pay for living expenses and spa holidays and fur capes. As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors recommended that Jackson receive a sentence of 46 to 57 months in prison. Although Mr. Jackson will not be sentenced until June, it is widely believed that this plea bargaining is too light for the seriousness of the crime.
In a confession to the court Mr. Jackson said, “For years I lived off my campaign. I used money I shouldn’t have used for personal purposes.”
From 2007 to 2011, Mr. Jackson bought $10,977.74 worth of televisions, DVD players and DVDs; he entertained by buying a $466.30 dinner; and paid for a $5,587.75 vacation at the Martha’s Vineyard Holistic Retreat. Court documents also revealed how Jackson used campaign money to buy items like fur capes, celebrity memorabilia and expensive furniture. Among those items were a $5,000 football signed by American presidents and two hats that once belonged to Michael Jackson, including a $4,600 fedora.
This public disgrace not only caused irreparable damage to the political legacy of his father, Rev. Jesse Jackson, a Dr. Martin Luther King supporter and U.S. shadow senator, but raises further questions of how campaign funding, which is subject to yearly inspection, could continuously be misused?
Campaign finance watchdogs are floating the idea of a new federal agency to replace the “woefully inept” FEC.
“The FEC has become completely dysfunctional and is failing to meet its responsibilities to uphold and enforce campaign finance laws. We have reached the point where we have the illusion of campaign laws because in reality, there is little or no enforcement of these laws,” said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21.
FEC needs reform
Democracy 21 has urged President Obama to reform the system and the organization. Advocates for reform have suggested “that the FEC should be replaced with a new agency that is headed by a single administrator with the authority, power and independence and can effectively enforce the laws.”
Democracy 21 said the new agency should “include a system of impartial administrative law judges” to make quick rulings in campaign finance cases. That would “provide real time penalties for violations of the campaign finance laws, where possible, in order to remove the perception that there is no cost to violating the law.”
“Barring the creation of a new regulatory agency,” Democracy 21 said, “it’s time for major changes at the FEC.”
They urged President Obama to make new appointments to the commission to replace members whose terms have expired. “As long as President Obama fails to nominate new commissioners, the absence of FEC enforcement of the campaign finance laws … rests with the president.”
“Without a new agency or completely revamped FEC, the nation’s remaining campaign finance laws will continue to go unenforced,” said a member from Democracy 21.
There is a deep concern that our current system of regulating campaign finance isn’t stringent enough and will allow further cases such as Jesse Jackson Jr.’s fraud to run for years. The public already has low levels of trust of politicians and issues of fraud and misuse of campaign funding only reinforce the general public low expectations. By proposing a change in how political candidate raises money along with a strong regulatory agency of enforcement would go along to improve public perceptions that politicians are honest.