The amounts lobbyists spent trying to persuade members of the Pennsylvania Senate have been released (the url is a the bottom of the press release). Information is provided in quarters, and is broken down by types of spending (personal office expenses, section 3 expenses, direct communication, and indirect communication) and by policy area (agriculture, arts, energy, gambling, etc.). Business (construction / manufacturing), health care, insurance, and sometimes education are the big spenders. However, it doesn't tell you who was doing the lobbying and who was lobbied.
While the information provided is interesting, it leaves a lot to be desired. I don't begrudge my senator a free lunch now and then, or maybe a new set of floor mats for the state-supplied car, I would like to know if any free trips to Scottish golf courses are involved and who is paying for it.
Friday, January 13, 2006
Lobbying Numbers Released
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3 comments:
Curiously enough, Sen. Rick Santorum has received more money from lobbyists than any other congressional candidate so far in the 2006 election cycle, according to this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06013/637267.stm
John Featherman
Republican Candidate, US Senate-PA
www.featherman.com
I should have made it clearly that these were numbers for the Pennsylvania state sentate not the US Senate.
Given the high profile of the US Senate race and its targeting by both parties, it isn't surprising that Santorum is receiving a lot of lobbyist money (or that Casey is too for that matter).
Jane,
You did make it clear in the first posting that you were speaking about the PA Senate and not the two US Senators from PA.
I simply thought your readers would like to know that interesting fact about the new self-described campaign finance reformer known as Rick Santorum.
The beauty is that the people now have the power of the Internet to easily access the campaigning fundraising of the candidates. For federal office, nothing beats tray.com, where you can search not only by candidate, but also by the donor's name, occupation, zip code, etc. If you put in "actor" or "actress" under the occupation search, makes for interesting reading to see whom the celebrities are giving to.
Ultimately, one of the problems with detecting the influence of lobbyists is that they are adept in having individuals -- as opposed to just PACS -- giving money to a targeted candidate, and it's tough to often link individual contributions to the efforts of specific lobbyists.
All of this ultimately makes the case for the public financing of candidates. The problem is that we need to set up fair criteria so that candidates can fairly compete.
John Featherman
Republican Candidate, US Senate-PA
www.featherman.com
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