Group plans billboard to goad McConnell

Financial disclosure bill is at issue

Publication: The Courier-Journal

James R. Carroll
June 1, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Weather permitting, a billboard will be put up today along Interstate 65 near the fairgrounds in Louisville asking: "What's McConnell Hiding?"

The words will be accompanied by the depiction of a hand turning on a light bulb, illuminating the face of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

The billboard is aimed at bringing public attention to a fight over a financial disclosure bill that is tied up in the Senate.

And the sponsors of the billboard are offering a reward of $500 to the first constituent who captures McConnell on video responding or declining to respond to questions about who is holding up the bill.

"Because all politics is local, we want his constituents to know that he is responsible for blocking this valuable piece of legislation," said Ellen Miller, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, which is sponsoring the billboard.

The foundation is a nonpartisan group in Washington that advocates greater transparency in government.

At issue is a relatively simple measure that would require Senate campaign finance reports to be filed electronically. The reports currently are filed on paper only, and it takes six to eight weeks until they are converted to electronic form by the Federal Election Commission.

The legislation, called the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act, is sponsored by Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., and has 40 co-sponsors from both parties, ranging from Democratic Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Hillary Clinton of New York to Republicans Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas.

Advocates say Feingold's bill would save $250,000 a year in costs for converting reports from paper to computer and would make campaign finance information available more quickly -- as has been the case in the House for years.

The bill had no opposition in committee, so it was put on a special Senate calendar to be passed by unanimous consent.

But twice in April, Republican senators rose on the Senate floor to object to the bill being considered. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., objected on behalf of "a Republican senator," while Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., objected on behalf of "the Republican side."

In neither case was a particular senator's name mentioned, and no senator has come forward to take credit. But the objections stopped the bill from being considered.

The holdup set off a wave of criticism from the Sunlight Foundation and other government watchdog groups, as well as newspaper editorial pages. They charged that an anonymous senator was holding up a measure promoting more open government.

McConnell is not one of the co-sponsors of the bill, but in a letter to The Courier-Journal on May 4, he said he did not oppose it.

Senators simply are insisting that there be an open debate on the bill, not a vote on the measure without debate or amendment, McConnell said.

"Sen. McConnell is on the record saying this bill will pass," spokesman Robert Steurer said in an e-mail message yesterday. "Whether or not there is a hold -- holds can't stop the majority leader (Harry Reid, D-Nev.) from bringing the bill to the floor for debate."

Steurer added: "The majority leader can schedule the bill for floor debate whenever he wants, and he hasn't even raised the issue with McConnell. Also, a billboard in Kentucky won't encourage the majority leader from Nevada to bring the bill to the floor."

Reid's office could not be reached for comment. Congress is on a break until next week.

Miller said McConnell is engaging in semantics to keep the bill from moving.

If the measure is removed from the unanimous consent calendar and made subject to debate and amendment, supporters fear it will be open to "poison pill" changes that will attack other parts of federal campaign finance law.

Feingold said in a blog posting in late April on DailyKos.com that no senator has raised an objection with him over the bill.

"This bill is not controversial," Feingold wrote. "No one has given a single reason to oppose it, or even debate it. It is exactly the kind of good, non-controversial bill that should pass the Senate by unanimous consent."

Miller said her group's efforts to pressure McConnell have nothing to do with politics.

Miller's foundation paid $8,000 for the billboard and $1,000 for an accompanying Web site, www.whatsmcconnellhiding.com. The billboard will stay up for a month, Miller said.