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'Follow the Money' in New York
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With all the campaign finance reform scuttles clouding the New York political landscape, I'd like to direct you to some of the tools I have been using to better understand the dynamics of politics and money in New York state.
Follow the Money is one of several campaign finance reform initiatives that have created tools that breakdowns electoral contribution data several different ways.
When I was invited earlier this year to attend a fundraiser with Nancy Pelosi at the famously posh Delmonico, I expected to see the sea of blue suits who had paid five thousand dollars a plate for the privilege of pressing the governor's flesh and witnessing Madame Speaker's reggae dancing skills. Yet while there I wondered, is this emblematic of all most fundraising efforts in New York. The answer? With only 21% 55% of the financial data in, Follow the Money's numbers for New York scream a resounding, YES.
NOTE
As I was getting ready to post this, Follow the Money's server is down.
Their site is back up as of 12:20pm.
A solution
The "Clean Money, Clean Elections" (CMCE) system of virtually full public funding for qualified candidates (those who demonstrate sufficient constituent support by gathering enough very small contributions) can make major fundraising moot. It would also be de facto lobbying reform, since elected officials could easily ignore lobbyists without worrying about their reelection chances.
CMCE also reduces the effect of third-party spending (PACs, 527s, etc.) by providing matching funds to candidates who are targeted by, say, the "Swift Boat Veterans..." group that torpedoed John Kerry.
On the state level, CMCE is supported by Governor Spitzer and Lt. Governor Paterson. There will also be a CMCE bill introduced into the City Council very soon.
In Congress, there are bills in both houses, each dealing with its own elections.
On the House side, H.R.1614 was recently introduced by John Tierney (D-MA), and already has 20 co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle. So far, Carolyn Maloney is the only NYC rep., but I expect to see Jerry Nadler's name on the list soon -- he's a big supporter of CMCE.
In the Senate, Dick Durbin has introduced S.936. Co-sponsors so far are Feingold, Obama and Specter (again, bi-partisan).
So, like ...
you know that, like, you now have to write a whole post about the Clean Elections campaign, right?
I'm going to continue fishing for campaign contribution information and posting it to the site. You're more qualified to report about the CMCE
CMCE blog to come
I'll be blogging on it very soon. Meanwhile, I have a quick writeup (which I actually wrote about a year ago) available on my website here.
Enjoy.