Pennsylvania’s campaign finance reporting system is easily gamed by unscrupulous politicians, especially in the final days before an election. State lawmakers — always loath to police themselves — must ensure punishments for late filings are enough to dissuade candidates from intentionally missing deadlines to keep their funders secret, as dozens of state legislators have done this election season with little pushback.
At the same time, fines will always be an imperfect way to police campaign finance law. There are no fines big enough for expensive high-profile races that won’t be ruinous for candidates in smaller races, where limited staff and small war-chests make missing deadlines more likely. The system shouldn’t be so punitive that candidates of modest means feel they can’t run for office without risking their financial well-being.
That’s why the only surefire way to dissuade candidates from gaming the campaign finance system is for voters to punish them. A candidate who can’t be bothered to follow the law in these matters, which involve basic honesty with the people he or she aspires to represent, is not worthy of the public trust.
In other words, while the state needs to raise the financial costs of missing campaign finance deadlines, the people need to raise the political cost.
At issue are the commonwealth’s deadlines for campaign finance reports in advance of every election, which are designed to keep the public informed of contributions and expenditures on an ongoing basis. The first deadline for each cycle (other than the January annual report) is the sixth-Tuesday-pre-election report, which is followed by the second-Friday-pre-election report — which is the one dozens of state candidates skipped or submitted late this cycle.
For the general election this year, this report was meant to include all transactions from the previous report in late September through Monday, Oct. 21, and was due on Friday, Oct. 25. The fine for missing the deadline is a flat $250.
However, the Post-Gazette’s Ford Turner reported this week that several members of the General Assembly suspect that their colleagues intentionally miss the deadline because the fine is worth it to keep their campaigns’ financial status obscured. While campaign committees must file daily “24-hour reports” every day from Oct. 22 through Nov. 5, those reports only cover the campaign’s activities for the day in question: Everything that should have been in the second-Tuesday-pre-election report remains secret.
Pennsylvania’s Department of State provides some accountability by publishing a report of which candidates have missed the final deadline, but that takes time — in part because campaigns can also mail their reports, as long as they are postmarked the day before the deadline. This year, the department could only “name and shame” on Nov. 1, the Saturday before the Tuesday election.
The solution to candidates skirting the law, then, must be multi-pronged. The fines should be increased, and should accrue for each day the report is late — perhaps $500 plus $100 per day.
But they can’t be so punitive that small candidates are priced out of politics for fear of making clerical errors. Only the people have to power to really enforce campaign finance expectations. That means being willing to make one’s vote contingent on whether candidates follow the law. The Department of State should consider ways to make the “name and shame” list more prominent, and media should publicize it, forcing candidates to answer for themselves.
The people have the power — if we’re willing to use it.
— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via TNS
