Electoral Funding Scandals Expose Cracks in Still-broken System

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Electoral Funding Scandals Expose Cracks in Still-broken System
by Michelle Chen

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/2549

" Nov 1 - Tom DeLay's grinning mug shot has become the emblem of congressional scandal in recent weeks. But for all the official scrutiny heaped on the Texas congressman and former majority leader of the House of Representatives, watchdog groups say that the most incriminating evidence of political corruption is simply business as usual on Capitol Hill. Underneath the scandals, they warn, is a free-flow of corporate money that regularly erodes democracy while staying inside the bounds of the law."

"It’s not just about Tom DeLay. It’s about the entire system," said David Donnelly, national campaigns director of the Public Campaign Action Fund, a campaign finance reform group. This latest scandal, he said, grows out of "the everyday trading of campaign donations for policy."

"Emerging ethics scandals have revealed the role of corporate lobbyists in the money chain between private interests and public servants. Channeling gifts, travel subsidies and campaign donations from clients to officials, high-stakes lobbyists often capitalize on cronyism. According to Public Citizen, since 1998, of all outgoing members of Congress eligible to become registered lobbyists, over 40 percent have entered the sector."