Making Government Transparent and Accountable
The Sunlight Foundation uses cutting-edge technology and ideas to make government transparent and accountable. Underlying all of our efforts is a fundamental belief that increased transparency will improve the public's confidence in government
The Sunlight Foundation Blog
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From the Freezer to the Cooler
A story we covered here at Sunlight a while back just reached it’s conclusion. Former Rep. William Jefferson was just found guilty of 11 of 16 counts in a bribery and corruption trial that cost him reelection last year. If you want the full story I’d check out the Open Congress page on Jefferson’s corruption case and read our previous coverage here.
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Brandeis And The History Of Transparency
“I’m proud to present the third and final part in the series of research projects from the Sunlight Foundation spring semester interns. This post is by Andrew Berger, he spent time looking into the past and following Louis Brandeis career in transparency and how it relates to the current movement.” – Nisha ThompsonBy Sunlight Foundation Intern, Andrew Berger
I never really feel like I understand something unless I have a sense of its history. (I once wanted to become a historian; I guess that’s just how I think.) So it’s no surprise that during my internship here at Sunlight, I found myself wanting to know more about the history of transparency. For my research, I decided to focus on efforts to increase transparency in the United States during the early twentieth century, using Louis Brandeis as a guide.
Brandeis made his famous statement that “sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants” in a 1913 Harper’s Weekly article, entitled “What Publicity Can Do.” But it was an image that had been in his mind for decades. Twenty years earlier, in a letter to his fiance, Brandeis had expressed an interest in writing a “a sort of companion piece” to his influential article on “The Right to Privacy,” but this time he would focus on “The Duty of Publicity.” He had been thinking, he wrote, “about the wickedness of people shielding wrongdoers & passing them off (or at least allowing them to pass themselves off) as honest men.” He then proposed a remedy:
If the broad light of day could be let in upon men’s actions, it would purify them as the sun disinfects.
Interestingly, at that time the word “publicity” referred both to something like what we think of as “public relations” as well to the practice of making information widely available to the public (Stoker and Rawlins, 2005). That latter definition sounds a lot like what we now mean by transparency.
Curious to know more about Brandeis’ early views, and disappointed to learn that he never wrote the article on publicity he suggested in the letter, I went looking for detailed statements he might have made on transparency from earlier in his career. I eventually found transcripts of several speeches he gave on municipal reform and good government in 1903 and 1904, the longest of which I discuss below. This speech is not just a window onto the past, but a way to see what has and what has not changed in the movement for transparency: a way to see both how far we have come and how far we still have to go.
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Abramoff Investigation Continues Apace
Last week, another former associate of Jack Abramoff’s pled guilty to charges of trying to corrupt a public office. Todd Boulanger, a former staffer in the office former Sen. Bob Smith, worked in Abramoff’s lobbying team from 1999 to 2004. (He also hilariously appears in this Daily Show clip as a CNN talking head.) Boulanger’s guilty plea provides information on more unnamed congressional staffers coming into investigation. These staffers are now known as “Staffer D,” a Transporation and Infrastructure Committee staffer; “Staffer E,” a top aide with Sen. Thad Cochran; “Staffer F,” an unknown legislative director.
“Staffer E” has been identified as Ann Copland, a former aide to Sen. Cochran now working (Copland is apparently no longer working at MPB, see the comment below) at Mississippi Public Broadcasting. Copland appears in the court documents as receiving a stream of tickets to events (NSYNC, Paul McCartney, Green Day, ice skating, and more) in exchange for using her official position to do the bidding of Abramoff and his lobbying team. She appears in the guilty pleas of both Boulanger and Kevin Ring, another lobbyist indicted in the scandal.
Below is an updated list of all the figures in the Abramoff scandal who have either pleaded guilty, been convicted, indicted, named in court documents, or had their career brought to an abrupt end by being mentioned in the scandal.
Officials and Lobbyists Brought Down in Abramoff Scandal Jack Abramoff Lobbyist, Preston Gates, Greenberg Traurig Convicted; Sentenced to 13 Years 4 Months Michael Scanlon Former Comm. Director to Rep. Tom DeLay; Public Relations Executive Pleaded Guilty Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) House of Representatives; Chair of Committee on House Administration Pleaded Guilty; Released from prison after serving 17 months J. Steven Griles Deputy Secretary of the Interior Pleaded Guilty; Sentenced to 10 months in prison Tony Rudy Deputy Chief of Staff to Rep. Tom DeLay; Lobbyist, Greenberg Traurig Pleaded Guilty David Safavian General Services Administration, Chief of Staff; Office of Management and Budget, Top Procurement Officer Convicted; Sentenced to 18 months in prison Neil Volz Chief of Staff to Rep. Bob Ney Pleaded Guilty Italia Federici President of Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy Pleaded Guilty Mark Zachares Aide to Rep. Don Young Pleaded Guilty John Albaugh Chief of Staff to Rep. Ernie Istook Pleaded Guilty Trevor Blackann Lobbyist and former staffer for Sen. Kit Bond Pleaded Guilty Will Heaton Chief of Staff to Rep. Bob Ney Pleaded Guilty Todd Boulanger Lobbyist and former staffer to Sen. Bob Smith Pleaded Guilty Robert Carpenter Deputy Chief of Staff, Criminal Division, US Department of Justice Pleaded Guilty Roger Stillwell Desk Officer in charge Marianas Islands, Department of Interior Pleaded Guilty Adam Kidan Business Partner, SunCruz Casinos Pleaded Guilty; Sentenced to 5 years, ten months in prison James Hirni Lobbyist and former staffer for Sens. Tim Hutchinson, Bill Frist, and Jeff Sessions Indicted on one count “conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud” Kevin Ring Lobbyist, Greenberg Traurig Indicted on ten counts Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) House of Representatives; Majority Leader Named in guilty pleas; Under investigation; Retired after the guilty plea of former staffer Tony Rudy Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) House of Representatives Named in guilty pleas; Under investigation; Houses raided by FBI; Retired from Congress Rep. Ernie Istook (R-OK) House of Representatives Named in guilty pleas; Under investigation; No longer in Congress Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL) House of Representatives Named in guilty pleas; Under investigation; Defeated for reelection Ed Buckham Chief of Staff to Rep. Tom DeLay; Lobbyist Named in guilty pleas; Under investigation Ann Copland Staffer for Sen. Thad Cochran Named as “Staffer E” in guilty pleas Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ) House of Representatives Linked to Abramoff scandal; Defeated in 2006 election; Since acknowledged not under investigation Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) U.S. Senate Linked to Abramoff scandal; Defeated in 2006 election; Since acknowledged not under investigation Ralph Reed Former head of Christian Coalition; Lobbyist Named repeatedly in reports of Abramoff’s Indian tribe swindles; Lost 2006 Lt. Gov. race; Reputation in tatters Susan Ralston Special Assistant to the President; Deputy to Karl Rove Resigned her job; Sought immunity to testify before House committee; Justice Department still reviewing granting of immunity
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Pittsburgh Gets Some Transparency
Pittsburgh, PA Comptroller Michael Lamb just announced plans to create a searchable database for campaign contributions to local candidates and city contracts. This comes after an in depth expose by the Pittsburgh Post Gazette regarding city contracts being given to businesses who give large campaign donations. “The Post-Gazette analyzed 3,300 campaign contributions since 2005 and data on more than 4,400 contracts, development deals and other actions by the city and its authorities since 2006.”
This article describes how several companies who gave the mayor a significant campaign donation got no bid contracts. Even though no formal “pay for play” charges are determined the perception of wrong doing is evident.
The creation of a searchable database that will make this information easily available and transparent is definitely one steop in the right direction. Also, this story demonstrates exactly how investigative journalism keeps lawmakers accountable and moves transparency measure forward.
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Does Power Corrupt?
Considering the major story of the day, Illinois Gov. Blagojevich’s “political corruption crime spree,” this new study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology is worth paying attention to.
Strike one against the idea that “Washington insiders” are corrupted by power and can no longer think independently.
Rather, new research based on experiments with college students who were primed to feel powerful suggests that, at least in some cases, power tends to shield people from outside opinions, leaving them to rely more on their own insights. While the study is not a knock-out blow to the long-held assumption that power corrupts, it does indicate the reality is more nuanced.
Essentially, “power protects,” insulating the powerful from different opinions, leaving them to rely on themselves, their ideals, and their personality. President Richard Nixon’s closed circle led him to embrace illegal actions that reflected his resentments and paranoia. Gov. Blagojevich’s clearly was a jerk (my opinion only, and maybe yours), and given the power of Governor, acted the way that his criminal complaint alleges.
The researchers suggest that those who have positive ideals can be empowered by the the insulation of power:
“Although power is often thought of as a pernicious force that corrupts people who possess it,” said lead researcher Adam Galinsky of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Illinois, “it is the protection from situational influence that helps powerful individuals surmount social obstacles and express the seemingly unpopular ideas of today that transform into the ideals of tomorrow.”
Here’s another suggestion: allow multiple channels of communications, enabled by the Internet, to reach the powerful. Transparency and openness can ensure that the powerful are not insulated from outside opinion. Accountability is unavoidable when everyone’s voice is made equal and open.
Luckily for us, the Obama-Biden Transition team appear to be taking the notion of transparency and open communications to heart. In their health care discussion (dissected brilliantly by Sunlight’s Greg Elin) and the Your Seat At The Table feature offer unprecedented two way communications and transparency for executive branch decisions.
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Many Eyes and Blago
Sunlight’s Bill Allison, at Real Time Investigations, links to a Many Eyes presentation of the Blagojevich criminal complaint. Looking at the visualization makes one thing clear: while the selling of the Senate seat is by far his most audacious activity, the rest of the charges are actually far, far worse. The imperious pressure the Governor put on the Tribune Company to fire editorial board members and staff is reminiscent of a third world dictator. The pay-to-play contract rigging is also horrific. Just look at this:
On October 8, Blagojevich told Individual A that he wanted to obtain a $50,000 contribution from Hospital Executive 1, the chief executive officer of Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago, which had recently received a commitment of $8 million in state funds. When the contribution was not forthcoming, Blagojevich discussed with Deputy Governor A the feasibility of rescinding the funding.
The Governor threatened to close a Children’s Hospital over a $50,000 campaign contribution.
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Who Are Senate Candidates 1-5?
The criminal complaint filed against Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff John Harris names five considered Senate candidates. Most of the mentions of the potential candidates indicates that they were only mentioned in discussions with Blagojevich and Harris and that they were likely unaware of the pay-to-play negotiations going on. Except, maybe, for Senate Candidate 5:
Just last week, on December 4, Blagojevich allegedly told an advisor that he might “get some (money) up front, maybe” from Senate Candidate 5, if he named Senate Candidate 5 to the Senate seat, to insure that Senate Candidate 5 kept a promise about raising money for Blagojevich if he ran for re-election. In a recorded conversation on October 31, Blagojevich claimed he was approached by an associate of Senate Candidate 5 as follows: “We were approached ‘pay to play.’ That, you know, he’d raise 500 grand. An emissary came. Then the other guy would raise a million, if I made him (Senate Candidate 5) a Senator.”
So, who are these Senate Candidates:
Senate Candidate 1: Obama-Biden Transition Adviser Valerie Jarrett
Senate Candidate 2: Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan
Senate Candidate 3: UNKNOWN
Senate Candidate 4: Deputy Gov. Louanner Peters
Senate Candidate 5: UNKNOWN. Possibly, Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr.
UPDATE: Totally missed Senate Candidate 6: A rich person in Illinois
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The Replacements: Pay-to-Play In Obama Replacement
Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois was arrested today on charges related to his decision on whom to appoint to President-Elect Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested today by FBI agents on federal corruption charges.
Blagojevich and Harris were accused of a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy that included Blagojevich conspiring to sell or trade the Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama in exchange for financial benefits for the governor and his wife. The governor was also accused of obtaining campaign contributions in exchange for other official actions.
A press release from the office of the U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald reads as follows (via FireDogLake):
A 76-page FBI affidavit alleges that Blagojevich was intercepted on court-authorized wiretaps during the last month conspiring to sell or trade Illinois’ U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama for financial and other personal benefits for himself and his wife. At various times, in exchange for the Senate appointment, Blagojevich discussed obtaining:
— a substantial salary for himself at a either a non-profit foundation or an organization affiliated with labor unions;
— placing his wife on paid corporate boards where he speculated she might garner as much as $150,000 a year;
— promises of campaign funds – including cash up front; and
— a cabinet post or ambassadorship for himself.
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“The breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering,” Mr. Fitzgerald said. “They allege that Blagojevich put a ‘for sale’ sign on the naming of a United States Senator; involved himself personally in pay-to-play schemes with the urgency of a salesman meeting his annual sales target; and corruptly used his office in an effort to trample editorial voices of criticism. The citizens of Illinois deserve public officials who act solely in the public’s interest, without putting a price tag on government appointments, contracts and decisions,” he added….
Furthermore:
In the earliest intercepted conversation about the Senate seat described in the affidavit, Blagojevich told Deputy Governor A on November 3 that if he is not going to get anything of value for the open seat, then he will take it for himself: “if . . . they’re not going to offer anything of any value, then I might just take it.” Later that day, speaking to Advisor A, Blagojevich said: “I’m going to keep this Senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore I can drive a hard bargain.” He added later that the seat “is a [expletive] valuable thing, you just don’t give it away for nothing.”
Illinois law allows for Gov. Blagojevich to step out of the way and allow the Lt. Governor to appoint the President-Elect’s successor. It is, at this point, likely impossible for Blagojevich to appoint a replacement for Obama without creating the appearance of corruption. The Senate may even move to refuse to seat the replacement.
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Indicted Rep. Jefferson Defeated in Bid for Re-Election
Despite the heavy Democratic tilt of the district, voters froze indicted Rep. William Jefferson out in the cold just like the $90,000 in cash the FBI found in his freezer. The New Orleans congressman, under indictment since 2007 on multiple bribery related charges, was defeated for reelection on Saturday in a run-off race with Republican Ahn “Joseph” Cao in Louisiana. Jefferson, who I’ve been following here at Sunlight since his alleged corruption became apparent back in 2006, previously won reelection under a cloud of corruption allegations in 2006.
The best resource to review the background of Jefferson’s case is his page at Congresspedia.
This makes two defeats for lawmakers under a cloud of corruption. Sen. Ted Stevens was convicted of seven felonies prior to his November 4th defeat. All other lawmakers facing known investigations either retired (Reps. Rick Renzi and John Doolittle) or won reelection.
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Scandal Plagued Lawmakers Win and Lose
In some ways it is unbelievable to think that a candidate for the United States Senate, fresh off of seven felony convictions, could win reelection. Never underestimate the power of resentment and incumbency. At the moment it appears that felonious Sen. Ted Stevens will be reelected to an eighth term. Sen. Stevens joins a few other scandal plagued lawmakers winning reelection.
Stevens’ congressional partner, Rep. Don Young, under investigation by the Justice Department for various earmark schemes, appears headed back to Congress. Also, Rep. William Jefferson, facing a 16 count indictment on corruption charges, won handily in his New Orleans district. (Update: Jefferson’s election was actually delayed due to new rules in Louisiana related to elections and hurricanes.)
Two Florida lawmakers embroiled in scandals did fail to win reelection. Rep. Tom Feeney, one of the last of the Abramoffian congressmen, lost badly. Feeney had to cut a commercial during the campaign in which he apologized for going on a golfing trip to Scotland that was secretly paid for by Jack Abramoff. Freshman Florida Rep. Tim Mahoney, caught in a TMZ style adultery scandal, was crushed in his attempted reelection.
Despite his likely victory, Sen. Stevens will be expelled, or forced to retire, from the U.S. Senate. As Yoda might say, “Convictions on felony counts do not a Senator make.” Speeding up the process may be the desire for Republicans to finally purge their ranks of the members tainted by corruption. Republican Sen. John Ensign has already expressed the likely position of the Republican caucus, stating that expulsion would not wait until after Sen. Stevens’ appeal process is complete.
