As promised, the prime time speeches to the Republican convention in word cloud form. Guess who gave each speech: (more…)

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Birds of a feather flock together. On Monday, our nation’s legislators will return, on winged flight, to finish up the year’s legislative work in less than 30 days. The bills of most pertinent attention will likely be appropriations bills, defense authorization, and, if necessary, a continuing resolution. The Senate Democrats just released an e-mail describing their September legislative agenda and groups are lining up to fight over a number of bills. Below, I’m going to take a quick look at the influence game around three of the bills that will surely get a vote in the next three weeks.

There are three bills outside of appropriations and military authorization that will come up in September. These include S. 3268, a bill to restrain energy speculation markets; S. 3186, a bill to provide low income heating assistance; and H.R. 1338, a bill to end gender discrimination in workplace pay. Using MAPLight.org’s listing of supporting and opposing interest groups and Open Secrets’ campaign contribution and lobbying data I have created some graphs showing the level of money groups are pumping into these two influence channels, and which side is spending more.

[Update: I only used 2008 data for these numbers. Campaign finance data at Open Secrets is updated through the second quarter filing period, which covers contributions up to June 30, 2008. Lobbyist disclosures also go through the second quarter filing covering spending up to June 30, 2008.]

S. 3268 — Stop Excessive Energy Speculation Act of 2008

S. 3186 — Warm in Winter and Cool in Summer Act

H.R. 1338 — Paycheck Fairness Act

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According to both the New York Times and the New York Post, Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel sporadically reported income and a mortgage on property that he owns in the Dominican Republic. Since purchasing the property in 1988, Rangel reported varying accounts of his property personal financial disclosures and failed to report any income on his state and federal tax returns. It is unclear as to whether he has run directly afoul of any law at the moment, but, yet again, here is another instance where the ambiguity in reporting on personal financial disclosures is in full display.

The New York Post ran up this handy graphic on the variations in disclosure reported by Rangel over the years:

What appears most suspect here are the repeated trips to his vacation home paid for by outside groups, including American Airlines and a three-day, all expenses paid trip by the Dominican/American Roundtable. Does a congressman really need private entities seeking legislative influence to pay the airfare for trips to his vacation home?

After numerous reports on disclosure failures and inappropriate fundraising practices, this doesn’t bode well for Rep. Rangel. Clearly he is having a bad year, and the digging by journalists will only continue.

Charles Rangel’s Personal Financial Disclosures (back to 1995) are available at Open Secrets.

Also, to see Charles Rangel’s growth in wealth from 1995 to 2006 go to Fortune 535.

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Participant Media has a new movie coming out early next year called “Casino Jack: The United States of Money.” (Their announcement is good timing given yesterday’s sentencing of Jack Abramoff.) This is the company behind such films as “An Inconvenient Truth,” “Syriana”, “Good Night, And Good Luck” and “Charlie Wilson’s War.” (This film is going to be a good one -it’s directed by by Alex Gibney (”Enron: Smartest Guys in the Room,” Oscar-winning “Taxi to the Darkside.”)

All of Participant’s films are accompanied by campaigns to raise awareness about an issue, and more importantly, to shine a light on the organizations and tools offering solutions.  The “Casino Jack” campaign will focus on how citizens can become an active part of understanding the money trail in politics and work to reduce the influence money has on government.

They just launched a site, where you can tell them what you think should be included in the campaign.  There are only 5 questions - multiple choice, with an option to add as many comments as you’d like.  This your chance to have input in the social action campaign from its inception.

I know they’re really interested in what you have to say so please considering taking a few minutes to fill it out.

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Once one of the biggest lobbyists in Washington, Jack Abramoff was just sentenced to 4 years in prison. Abramoff faced up to 11 years, but his sentence was reduced due to his continued cooperation in the probe into officials that received bribes from Abramoff. Abramoff was previously sentenced to 70 months for his part in the illegal acquisition of SunCruz Casinos in Florida.

Here’s a list to recap the Abramoff casualties, starting with those who either pleaded guilty or were found guilty:

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The new rules Congress passed last year requiring the disclosure of expense-paid trips members and their staff receive have sharply cut the number of free trips they have accepted. According to a short piece by Alex Knott at CQ, members of the 110^th Congress and their staff have accepted a little more than $3 million in free trips, as opposed to $7.5 million accepted by the 108^th Congress, a cut of more than half over the four years. Last year, Congress passed the new rules in the wake of the Jack Abramoff scandal, where it was revealed that lobbyists were showering lawmakers with lavish gifts and junkets. By the way, Abramoff, who is serving a six-year sentence for a fraudulent casino deal, is to be sentenced today by a federal judge where he faces an additional 11-year sentence for corrupting Congress.

CQ lists the lawmakers who have accepted the most money in free travel so far in this Congress:

- Rep. Susan A. Davis, Calif., $55,765

- Sen. Richard G. Lugar, Ind., $53,222

- Rep. Mike Ferguson, N.J., $51,886

- Rep. Russ Carnahan, Mo., $49,978

- Rep. Mark Souder, Ind., $49,750

- Rep. George Miller, Calif., $47,625

- Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Wis., $44,359

- Rep. Rick Boucher, Va., $42,219

- Rep. Howard L. Berman, Calif., $41,230

- Rep. Lloyd Doggett, Texas, $41,184

Center for Responsive Politics’ Congressional Travel database allows users to search all the trips taken by member of Congress, sponsors, industry, trip destination (both city and foreign country) and other fun data.

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When Congress passed and the president signed into law the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (two years ago this month) they started a trend that has swept well beyond Washington. According to the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL), state legislatures are starting to emulate the new federal law that requires access through a free and searchable Web site to details on all federal spending.

Since 2007, 11 states (Hawaii, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Washington) have established, via legislation or executive order, free and searchable Web sites that give access to state spending. And 24 other states are working on it, with more than half introducing spending transparency bills this year. B2G Exchange blog wrote in May that transparency Web sites were the “hottest new trend” in state government. SunshineReview.org is a good place to monitor progress of government transparency at the state and local level.

Kansas was the first to establish a transparency Web site by passing the Kansas Taxpayer Transparency Act in July 2007, and launching KanView on February 29^th of this year. The site is expected to cost about $40 million but it is estimated that it will generate $1 billion in savings. The champion of the new site, State Rep. Kasha Kelley of Arkansas City, Kan., has since become something of a traveling evangelist for government transparency. National and regional organizations, such as NCSL, the American Legislative Exchange Council and the Illinois Policy Institute, have invited Kelley to make presentations at their meetings and conferences. The federal Office of Management and Budget invited her to attend the unveiling of USAspending.gov, the federal transparency site. Because of Kelley’s transparency work, the anti-tax group Americans for Tax Reform named her a “Friend of the Taxpayer.”

And last month, the Columbus, Ohio, -based Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, a nonpartisan think tank devoted to small government in the state, launched its Center for Transparent and Accountable Government. The center says it will be collecting and posting online state and local government budgets, employee contracts, public records policies and other information. “Transparency and open government crosses ideologies and is equally supported, and equally opposed, by both major political parties,” said Mike Maurer, the center’s new director, a former statehouse reporter. He also said that Ohioans deserve the same type of transparency from their state and local governments that USAspending.gov provides at the federal level. In conjunction with its launch, the center issued a white paper gauging Ohio’s current level of openness, finding that the state “is behind its peers in government transparency.” They are asking candidates running for state office to take a transparency pledge. And they’ve set up OhioSunshine.org, an open government wiki. “The legitimacy of Ohio government rests on the consent of the governed, but that consent doesn’t mean much when so much of government occurs hidden, or deeply buried,” Hansen said. “Twenty-First Century information technology should be applied to draw back the curtain that stands between government and the people.”

Amen to that.

The explosion of open government activism in the states is a very encouraging legacy of the 2006 transparency act.

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With saturation convention coverage, how could I not post something about what is going on inside the convention halls? Here are some word clouds breaking down the speeches of the four prime time speakers from the Democratic convention. Guess which one goes with which speech: (more…)

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From Teapot Dome to Ted Stevens, the oil and gas industry holds a special place in imagination of Americans. This industry is one that is deeply connected to numerous corruption scandals throughout American history. In the 1920s, the Ohio Gang bought the election for Warren Harding, installed their own Interior Secretary and Attorney General, and went about stealing public lands to drill for resources. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Enron rigged the electricity market in California, helped elect a president, and funneled huge amounts of money into Republican coffers. And in 2008, Alaska’s senior senator, Ted Stevens, was indicted on charges related to his accepting gifts in exchange for seeking favors for the Alaskan oil company VECO.

Today, campaign contributions from the oil industry are ubiquitous in presidential and congressional races and oil lobbyists are paid millions in Washington. But in many ways, this is an old story. Instead of looking at oil and gas influence, why not look at the influence coming from new energy sources. If you’ve been watching television or reading the news, you’ve probably noticed the growth of stories surrounding alternative energy, from the explosion of wind turbine farms, Al Gore’s WE campaign, and T. Boone Picken’s plan. How does this nascent, yet exploding, industry measure up to the influence giants in Washington? (more…)

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Apropos to all the lobbyist sponsored parties at the conventions, the Los Angeles Times, in its Sunday edition, reported that LA’s city council is considering requiring lobbyists to wear a badge identifying them as influence peddlers when they are in city buildings and while attending city-sponsored events. The city’s ethics commission is floating the idea as part of an effort to overhaul its lobbying rules. The badges would help city officials and employees identify who’s advocating for city contractors, real estate developers or other special interests, the paper reports.

Not surprisingly, many lobbyists hate the idea, referring to it as a “Scarlet L,” and in a much more over-the-top comparison, likening it to the Star of David armbands the Nazis forced Jewish prisoners wear. One lobbyist, however, said he would agree to the badge in a trade off. “You let me get through security without emptying my pockets, and I’ll wear anything,” the Times quotes him as saying.

The commission will review the proposal over the next two months, and will then present their plan to the city council for final approval. We’ll keep an eye on this one.

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