Politics & Money: Determining financial influences on elected leaders
Are lawmakers really representing the concerns of their voting constituencies, or might they be more influenced by special interests?
In the North Carolina legislature, relationships are critically important. The Civitas Institute has created a tool by which citizens can check out financial disclosure statements filed by their elected representatives in both the House & the Senate - and then "follow the money" to determine its influence on the actions taken by those representatives. You can access those tools by going to the Civitas Institute's "Citizen Legislature" section.
This is information that can be found nowhere else. The Civitas tool allows you to see the bills introduced by your legislators, which are searchable by bill number, by specific text, or by category. By comparing bills with the campaign contributions of their sponsors, you can learn whether your lawmakers are paying attention to the vote that you cast on election day - or if they're favoring those who contributed the big bucks to their campaign war chests.
Civitas also provides a look at who's registering to vote - and how voter rolls have changed in recent years. The information is continually updated, reflecting changes over time statewide, and in all 100 North Carolina counties.
But who regulates these elections, anyway? The official agency is the NC State Board of Elections, which wields enormous power over the election process. But there is little, if any apparent oversight over the agency - a failure that leaves a gaping hole in North Carolina's quest for transparency. Still, interested citizens can glean some information about both candidates and incumbents at the SBOE website (though not about their specific legislative activities).
Lobbyists, who are often portrayed as the poster children for North Carolina's "pay-for-play" legislative culture, must report the contributions they make to lawmakers. In truth, the vast majority of lobbyists do not play the "big money" game, but information on most lobbyists' donations may be found at the state website for NC State Lobbyists Compliance, where their financial disclosure forms are posted. You won't find the whole story there, however. Some lobbyists - specifically those representing state agencies and economic development interests (both of whom are primarily funded with taxpayer dollars), are exempted from disclosure.
Lawmakers must also disclose contributions over $100, and they are also required to file Ethics Disclosure Forms with the state. But new changes in ethics disclosure reporting for lawmakers made during the 2008 session of the North Carolina General Assembly won't make conflicts-of-interest of elected or appointed officials any more transparent. If anything, the changes watered down reporting, and politics & influence will be even harder to track.
Clearly, changes are still needed before campaign reporting will really be transparent in North Carolina. But with recent legislative changes and the efforts of a private foundation, the Civitas Institute, more information is currently available than ever before - and it is valuable for anyone who believes in a truly representative legislature.
Updated July 29, 2008
