Lakewood Library November 4 th , 2017 A collaboration between Jeffco Political Action Taskforce • Common Cause • • Represent.Us With support from • Jefferson Humanists Jefferson County League of Women Voters • M AKING T HE S WAMP G O A WAY
S PEAKERS & T OPICS MC: Ralph Hughes, Jefferson Political Action Taskforce It’s Clear that Our System Has A Problem Caroline Fry, Common Cause How Special Interests Commandeer Our Legislators Dan Silbaugh, Represent.Us What Is The American Anti-Corruption Act? Representative Joe Salazar How to Make a State Anti-Corruption Act Effective & Durable ➢ Q&A with the panel ➢ 15-minute Workshops: Answer questions and sign petitions Jeffco chapter of Represent.Us
O BSERVABLE C ORRUPTION 60% 30% Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page, Perspectives on Politics, American Political Science Association, September 2014 Jeffco chapter of Represent.Us Slide 3
H OW A B AD L AW G ETS P ASSED ➢ Opioids killing 65,000 in U.S. per year ➢ Rep. Tom Marino backing law to remove DEA’s power to seize suspect pill shipments ➢ Law passed in 2016 after Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) negotiates a final version with the DEA ➢ Pharmaceuticals & Health Products campaign contributions: ▪ $1.5M to 23 sponsored & co-sponsored for four versions of the bill ▪ Marino $151,000 overall, $72,000 during 2016 election cycle ▪ Hatch $2.8M overall, $764,000 during the 2016 election cycle Jeffco chapter of Represent.Us Slide 4
I T ’ S N OT J UST T HE R EPUBLICANS ➢ Statistical analysis of political money on the votes of Democrats who has voted for Dodd-Frank in 2010 ➢ For every $100,000 in contributions, they were 14% more likely to vote for amendments during 2013 to 2105 to weaken the law ➢ Those Democrats who switched sides typically received $200,000 to $400,000 from the financial sector Authors from the University of Massachusetts and the University of Texas Jeffco chapter of Represent.Us Slide 5
S ENATORS M UST R AISE $1,650 F OR E VERY H OUR T HEY S ERVE Don’t you think I know that? $10.4M per winning candidate. Eight hours per day for 133 days over six years. Or $893 for every hour of a regular person’s working year. Jeffco chapter of Represent.Us Slide 6
AN EXTREMELY BRIEF OVERVIEW OF HOW SPECIAL INTERESTS INFLUENCE POLICY C A R O L I N E F RY C O L O R A D O C O M M O N C A U S E
LOBBYING
OVERVIEW • Congress: $3.2 billion in 2016 • Colorado: $38.7 million in 2016 • 231 pages of registered lobbyists • Online lobbyist disclosure system • Ban on gifts from lobbyists > legislators ISSUES • Analysis – “If you want to know how much money is being spent on a specific issue [in Colorado], there’s not a simple way to do it” - Center for Public Integrity • Oversight – Who is paying attention?
REVOLVING DOOR • Federal – Congress and Federal agencies • Colorado – Two-year revolving door restriction for state legislators – No recent data re: number of Colorado legislators who become lobbyists
ALEC • From Wikipedia: – The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a nonprofit organization of conservative state legislators and private sector representatives who draft and share model state-level legislation for distribution among state governments in the United States
ELECTIONS
OVERVIEW • $73.9M spent in Colorado elections in 2016 • Contribution limits • Reporting / disclosure – TRACER • Campaign finance reports not audited for compliance – Private citizens expected to prosecute ethics complaints at their own expense
ISSUE COMMITTEES • Purpose: support or oppose a state or local ballot initiative/question • How they raise money – From anyone! – No contribution limits • How they spend money – Voter education / advertisements
INDEPENDENT EXPENDITURE COMMITTEES (SUPER PACS) • Purpose: to advocate for or against a political candidate(s) – Must be done independently of a candidate's campaign • How they make money – Can receive unlimited contributions from corporations, unions, associations, and individuals • How they spend money – May not give money directly to candidate committees, political parties, or otherwise coordinate with candidates – May engage in express advocacy • List of Super PACS
HOW SUPER PAC COORDINATE WITH CANDIDATES • Walker Stapleton guest of honor at the fundraiser thrown by the super PAC who is supporting him (Better Now Colorado) • Carly Fiorina left the grassroots organizing to her Super PAC, who somehow knew every city she was traveling to ahead of time and drove people to her official campaign events • A Super PAC supporting Marco Rubio produced a video that shows him speaking directly into the camera… as if he recorded it • Jeb Bush held off declaring his official candidacy while touring with his “unaffiliated” Super PAC, Right to Rise, which raised over $100 million
501(C)4 SOCIAL WELFARE ORGS • Purpose: operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare – Allowed to participate in politics, as long as it does not become their primary focus – Are tax-exempt • How they raise money – Unlimited donations from individuals, corporations, businesses • How they spend money – Cannot directly donate to federal candidates – Can directly donate to political committees, super PACs • Reporting – Not required to report donors or spending to the FEC – Not required to report donors or spending to the CO SOS – Revenue and expenditures are reported on 990 tax form
CAROLINE FRY ADVOCACY & MEDIA MANAGER CFRY@COMMONCAUSE.ORG COLORADOCOMMONCAUSE.ORG
SOURCES • Colorado lobbying law offers murky picture of influence on politics – http://www.denverpost.com/2016/02/27/colorado-lobbying-law-offers-murky-picture-of-influence- on-politics/ • Colorado gets D+ grade in 2015 State Integrity Investigation – https://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/11/09/18347/colorado-gets-d-grade-2015-state-integrity- investigation • Colorado lobbying in 2016 – https://www.followthemoney.org/show-me?dt=3&lby-f-fc=2&lby-s=CO&lby-y=2016# – https://www.followthemoney.org/show-me?dt=3&lby-f-fc=2&lby-s=CO&lby-y=2016#[{1|gro=lby-f-cci • Colorado Secretary of State’s online lobbying system – https://www.sos.state.co.us/lobby/Home.do • Colorado Secretary of State’s campaign finance reporting system – http://tracer.sos.colorado.gov/PublicSite/homepage.aspx • Follow the Money top donors in Colorado elections 2016 – https://www.opensecrets.org/states/donors.php?state=CO
W HAT IS THE A MERICAN A NTI -C ORRUPTION A CT ? Dan Silbaugh, Represent.Us Jeffco chapter of Represent.Us
C ORRUPTION IS LEGAL IN A MERICA ➢ Lobbyist can donate money to candidate, representative can take and pass laws written by lobbyist ➢ Lobbyists can curry favor with representatives ➢ Not all political spending is required to be reported ➢ Gerrymandering, Primary system, First Past the Post, “independent” expenditures, etc … Jeffco chapter of Represent.Us
T HE A MERICAN A NTI -C ORRUPTION A CT ➢ Model Legislation, adaptable to municipal, county, state and federal law. ▪ Living Document ▪ May be enacted in whole, part, or modified ➢ Drafted by election law scholars specifically to be constitutional ▪ Even under the current SCOTUS Jeffco chapter of Represent.Us
T HE A MERICAN A NTI -C ORRUPTION A CT ➢ Makes corruption illegal ➢ As it is passed in municipalities, counties and states it will create a “clean” body of legislators in Washington D.C. ▪ Those clean legislators will then be able to pass a the AACA on a federal level ▪ “Farm Team” system of politician grooming Jeffco chapter of Represent.Us
C ONFLICTS OF I NTEREST AND P OLITICAL B RIBERY ➢ Prohibit candidates from accepting campaign donations from lobbyists ➢ Prohibit lobbyist bundling ➢ Close the Revolving Door ➢ Prohibit fundraising during “Congress Hours” Jeffco chapter of Represent.Us
F ULL T RANSPARENCY ➢ Automatic disclosure of all political fundraising and expenditures above $200 ➢ Enact DISCLOSE Act (S.229, H. 430) of 2015 ➢ Disclosure of bundlers Jeffco chapter of Represent.Us
F IX O UR B ROKEN E LECTIONS ➢ End Gerrymandering ➢ Change how Elections are Funded ➢ Single, Open Primaries ➢ Ranked Choice Voting Jeffco chapter of Represent.Us
E NFORCE THE R ULES ➢ “Independent” PAC coordination ➢ Increase Lobbying Disclosure Requirements ▪ Change Threshold for Reporting ▪ Transparent Lobbying Disclosure ▪ 2 year suspension for violations ➢ Fix the FEC ▪ Enact Federal Election Administration Act 2016 ▪ Enact Public Corruption Prosecution Improvements Act 2012 Jeffco chapter of Represent.Us
A N E XAMPLE … ➢ Does Jefferson County have it’s own FEC? ➢ Does Jefferson County have it’s own independent election commission? ➢ Could one be created? ➢ How would it be composed? Maintained? Powers? Jeffco chapter of Represent.Us
A NOTHER E XAMPLE … . ➢ Credit/Voucher for small donors? ➢ What mechanism exists to do so? ➢ What mechanism COULD exist? ➢ Alternative method? Jeffco chapter of Represent.Us
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