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Ed Fallon’s blog post for April 2, 2008 (9:00 p.m.)
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Apr 3, 2008 Posted by Stacy Brenton
The corporate wing of the Democratic Party in the Iowa House is now working against me. They’re offering a bill to prevent a candidate from being paid to work on his or her own campaign. They’re calling it a bill to close the “Fallon loophole.”
After I lost the primary for governor in June, 2006, we paid the bills and still had about $30,000 in the bank. I am always careful to finish campaigns in the black, but so much money came in toward the end of the campaign that we were left with more than expected. Though the campaign was over, there was still plenty of work to do with data entry, file drawers, computer files, and office equipment. I also wanted to make sure the key issues in my campaign continued to receive attention through the general election. So, three staff and I stayed on part-time.
The truth is this is a non-issue, and the Ethics Board agrees that we were ok to do this work with campaign funds. The real loophole is the one that lets legislative leaders take hundreds of thousands of dollars from PACs and lobbyists and funnel it to targeted candidates. Successful candidates are then reminded by leaders that they won because of the money funneled into their campaigns. Those leaders are then re-elected to their positions of power, the PACs and lobbyists continue to pour money into their coffers for the next round of campaigns, and the cycle continues.
That’s the real “loophole.” Instead of wasting their time taking pot shots at me, House and Senate Democrats should do something meaningful for clean elections. If they have time to close the nefarious “Fallon loophole,” they certainly have time to close the soft-money loophole – and they certainly have time to pass campaign finance reform.
The sad part is the Democratic Party has so much to offer, but much of the leadership is bought and paid for. Rank-and-file democratic activists are passionate people who care deeply about issues. There is so much good the Party could do if only leadership would free itself from the shackles of corporate cash. If Iowa House and Senate Democrats fail to do that, if they fail to put the public interest ahead of special interests, they may well lose their majority status this year. That would be a shame, but it would also be a clear signal that it’s time for a newer, truer, and bluer Democratic majority.