Sunday, July 17, 2005

Globe should have backed it up with facts

Though The Joplin Globe's lead editorial today was a good first step in the battle against the continued influence of lobbyists in Jefferson City, it fell short because it failed to explain why it is so important that action be taken.
First, it says "Southwest Missouri's contingent accepted meals, tickets and travel expenses amounting to $6,700 from lobbyists."
That shows a lack of understanding of how the system works. That is the amount that has been given individually to our senator and our representatives. That does not include the meals, drinks, etc., provided by lobbyists to entire committees and caucuses, sometimes even the entire House or Senate. These gifts are not recorded on the individual lawmakers' disclosure forms.
And it most definitely does not include the amount received by our elected officials from lobbyists in the form of campaign contributions. As I showed yesterday in The Turner Report, Sen. Gary Nodler, R-Joplin, has received more than $2,000 in contributions during the past year from registered lobbyists. This is not meals, drinks, and gifts. This is cold, hard cash.
Nodler is not the only one who has been a recipient of cash, as I shall show in upcoming posts.
In the second sentence of the editorial, the Globe opines, "They didn't peddle their integrity- or jeopardize their political futures- for a sandwich here or a cup of coffee there." Part of that is undeniably true. They didn't jeopardize their political futures. It is hard to jeopardize your political future when you have the funds coming from lobbyists, PACS, and well-heeled businesspeople and their wives (or husbands) to be able to crush any opposition in the primaries or the general election. In fact, it is unlikely that anyone will run against them.
As for their integrity, we have a senator who receives more than $2,000 from registered lobbyists...and not one of them is listed as a lobbyist on the senator's campaign disclosure forms. We have a representative, Steve Hunter, who is a paid lobbyist for all intents and purposes, with his job as a "membership recruiter" for one of the most powerful lobbying interests in the state, Associated Industries of Missouri. Those are just two examples. I am not going to say that our elected officials have sold their integrity, but The Globe goes too far with its blanket statement that they haven't.
The editorial writer hits it on the head with the statement, "Accepting gifts from a special interest, whether supporters of business, labor, highways or welfare programs, can run up a red flag for constituents." This is a problem across the state, not just in the southwest corner and it reaches across party lines. The names and special interests are different (sometimes), but the Democrats are receiving just as much money and gifts as the Republicans. As I showed in earlier assessments of how much elected officials have received from lobbyists, Steve Hunter is tops in the state, but he has some Democrats breathing right down his neck. And the amount Gary Nodler has received in campaign contributions from lobbyists, adding to the rather meager (at least compared to the big recipients) $474.33 he received in gifts, actually puts him ahead of Hunter.
I am in total agreement with the Globe editorial board on the statement that our legislators should "refrain from taking anything" from lobbyists. I only wish the Globe would have pointed out, as I have on two occasions, why it is so unnecessary for elected officials to take anything from lobbyists.
According to the Missouri State Manual, our elected officials "receive a salary of $31,351 per year, a weekly allowance for miles traveled going to and returning from their place of meeting and expenses for each day the General Assembly is in session."
That amount, $31,351, may not sound like much to some of you, and apparently, it doesn't seem like anything at all to our senator and representatives, but it is much more money than most of their constituents make. Our elected officials are not forced to pay for traveling to and from Jefferson City, and they receive money for expenses for each day. All of that would seem to eliminate any need for them to accept handouts from anyone for anything.
Finally, the Globe editorial does not even address the biggest problem caused by the pervasive influence of lobbyists: The gifts and campaign contributions give them what most of our legislators' constituents can never hope to have...ready access. Steve Hunter said it in the Globe article, it's just getting their foot in the door.
Lobbyists are right there in Jefferson City, for a reason. If they didn't have success in shaping legislation there would be no need for them to exist. The average constituents, the men and women our legislators pay lip service to representing, cannot take the time to drive to the state capital to convince their senator or representative how to vote on an issue.
That is why it is so important to keep an eye on lobbyists. Lobbyists and the people they represent not only support or oppose legislation, but in many cases they are the ones who are writing the legislation.
This is a far more serious problem than the Globe editorial would indicate. Hopefully, this is just the lead salvo in a series of Globe articles and editorial page followup on the influence of special interests on our legislators and the laws they pass or fail to pass.

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