When last we visited the issue of Sen. Russ Feingold's bill requiring Senate candidates to file their FEC reports electronically the same way that presidential and House candidates, parties and political committees have done for years, the problem was an anonymous Republican Senator putting a hold on the legislation.
Thanks to the Democrats' ethics bill now signed into law, that Republican could no longer lurk in the shadows holding the bill for ransom. That Senator now has a name, and it is NRSC chairman John Ensign (R-NV).
[Well, Ensign's not sure it was him back then, only that he's the problem now: "When asked by reporters whether he placed the holds, Ensign said Tuesday, "I don't remember. To be honest with you. I don't remember."]
While claiming he has "no objection" to the bill, Ensign still wants to hold it hostage. And for what? A poison pill that Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) handed Sen. Diane Feinstein last week, which directly targets groups like CREW, Public Citizen, Common Cause, and the League of Women Voters, which attempt to hold Senators accountable for their ethical transgressions:
Ensign nevertheless opposed its passage unless it were coupled on the floor with a vote on an unrelated amendment that requires nonprofit organizations to disclose all of their $5,000+ donors when filing ethics complaints against Senators.
What can we say about this proposal? Of course it's not germane to this innocuous, bipartisan legislation, but what's more is that it's pretty blatantly unconstitutional. In a series of cases from the civil rights era including NAACP v Alabama and Bates v. City of Little Rock, the Supreme Court has made clear that such compelled disclosure – or "outing" – of supporters of a political organization is anathema to democracy, as it subjects members to potential harassment or retaliation and infringes on their constitutional rights of association, and must be supported by a compelling state interest. There is no such interest here, only Republicans' desire to muzzle those who seek to hold them accountable. CREW, for example, has requested for ethics committee investigations of Ted Stevens, Pete Domenici, Larry Craig, and David Vitter. Here's what Sen. Russ Feingold has to say about it:
Sen. Feinstein has made Sen. Ensign the same offer she previously made to Sen. Bennett, when he was the one blocking S. 223: withdraw the poison pill, and let's have a prompt hearing to consider your language separate, and not vote on it until it's fully considered.
Let's remember what it's all about: it costs taxpayers about $250,000 a year for a private Virginia contractor to convert the Senate paper filings -- which are created by the campaigns using computers and software -- back into electronic format for the FEC to post on its Web site. The conversions take anywhere from 18 to 27 days to complete, which means that most of the last campaign filings for the Senate do not become electronically available on the FEC website until after the election.
So the Republican Leader in the Senate and the head of the Senate Republicans' campaign committee are conspiring to not only block more timely disclosure in campaign finance, but also to try and stymie the ethics woes that they face. Indeed, as Dennis Green said, they are who we thought they were.
Here's what you can do today: if you live in a state with a Republican Senator, call his or her DC office today and demand that S. 223, Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act, receive a clean up-or-down vote. If he or she is not a cosponsor yet, get them on board. It's time to move the Senate into the 21st Century.