PSoTD

The campaign for Lee Heffner, candidate for Pennsylvania 37th House District, was good enough to respond to my request for an email interview on lobbyist registration. Below are the responses.

Question 1: What should be the goals of any lobbying laws or reform in Pennsylvania?

Lee Heffner: To facilitate elections that are about the market place of ideas and elected officials who are true public servants.

Question 2: What entity or entities should be responsible for administering these laws?

Lee Heffner: I'm open to all policies that would improve the election process in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Question 3: Are there any other states that could or should serve as a model for lobbying regulation?

Lee Heffner: Rhode Island has made significant strides in this area. GovTracker has provided their citizens with information about lobbyists and their Secretary of State, Matt Brown, has instituted some aggressive reforms.

Question 4: What kind of public reporting requirements should be required for lobbying? How much information should a citizen be able to find publicly about the activities of a lobbyist, and how should that information be made available?

Lee Heffner: Lobbyists should report their expenditures and the information should be available on the internet in addition to hard copy.

Question 5: Should lobbyists be required to pay, through registration fees, for all costs involved in providing such registration/regulation/public reporting?

Lee Heffner: I would have to investigate all the possible circumstances but for certainly for career lobbyists.

Question 6: How important is lobbyist regulation/registration to you as an issue? Is this something you would see as a top priority for the General Assembly in your first session?

Lee Heffner: My campaign is about new leadership you can trust in Harrisburg and so I take this issue very seriously. Pennsylvanians share values of honesty and trust. Unfortunately, we've lost trust in our legislators' honesty. Transparency of lobbyist activities is an important component to restoring trust and weeding out the culture of corruption in Harrisburg.

There are dozens of cell tower furor stories in the news these days, as residents and service providers battle for placement of towers. But I have never seen the news media ask the bigger question for any area. For example, in this story from Dauphin County in Pennsylvania:

When members of the Paxtang Borough Council consider the proposed installation of a 120-foot cell phone antenna tower in Saussaman Park, they're likely to hear a neighbors' chorus of "not in my backyard."

Council on Tuesday will review a proposal made by T-Mobile of Bellevue, Wash.

Couldn't the Harrisburg Patriot-News do a little digging and report on the cell-service coverage for that area, or the county of Dauphin, or for their zone of readership for that matter? Wouldn't that be more beneficial to all readers of the Harrisburg Patriot-News, to provide some sort of information on cell-service coverage - not by who provides the service, but whether geographic coverage is provided at all or not? Surely Paxtang Borough would know, since they're trying to address the issue. Surely Dauphin County would know. Surely the State of Pennsylvania would know. Surely the FCC would know.

And if they don't - isn't that really the story in itself?

From American Agenda:

Simple Instructions for the Perfect Friday in Pennsylvania

Directory for the Pennyslvania House of Representatives.

Locate your rep, pick up the phone and call him or her.

Tell your Rep to oppose the passage of HB 2381 (The Marriage Protection Amendment) or they will lose your vote forever! Tell them to focus on the real priorities of Pennsylvania, not the hate of a fringe group bent on erasing the seperation of church and state.

Hang up.

Repeat.

Repeat.

It still would be a good thing to do Monday morning.

We're heading towards Pennsylvania's prime political fundraising season - the spring/summer before fall elections. That's probably a lot of golf and cocktail receptions... You can sign up for weekly emails at the events at the PAFundraisers.com website. Kind of an eye-opener.

It looks at this point like the Washington Post doesn't look too favorably at Lynn Swann's chances, or the importance, of his candidacy. Does this reflect National Party perceptions?

From PCNBlog:

According to an e-mail from PCN President and CEO Brian Lockman, the network is planning an upcoming Call-In Program featuring political bloggers.

We just posted audio of the whole debate:

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/14388717.htm

Carl Lavin, deputy managing editor, news Philadelphia Inquirer

I don't know if it is Sean Sebastian of Birchmere Ventures who is sending out spam about helping fund Lynn Swann's run for Governor, but seriously, whoever it is needs to spend some effort in targeting. I'm not a Steelers fan, I'm not from Pittsburgh, I'm not a Republican, and I haven't heard one word from Lynn Swann that would suggest he'd make a decent Mayor of Pittsburgh, let alone a Governor of the State. I don't know Sean Sebastian, never met him to my knowledge, never given him my business card.

Bleh, political spammers, gotta hate 'em.

PCN will air live coverage of the second debate between the candidates for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat on Wednesday, April 19 beginning at 7:00 p.m. The debate will take place on the campus of Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster.

Scheduled to appear at the debate are Bob Casey, Jr., Alan Sandals, and Chuck Pennacchio. The gentlemen will discuss the issues leading up to the statewide primary election. The winner of that election will go on to face Republican incumbent Sen. Rick Santorum in the November general election.

Your adoring public is getting anxious.

Mark Purcell, candidate for State Representative in Pennsylvania House District 20, was kind enough to respond to my questions about lobbyist registration policy in Pennsylvania. Below are his responses:

Question 1: What should be the goals of any lobbying laws or reform in Pennsylvania?

Mark Purcell: Total disclosure of all gifts and money spent on, or given to lawmakers in Pennsylvania.

Question 2: What entity or entities should be responsible for administering these laws?

Mark Purcell: State Department.

Question 3: Are there any other states that could or should serve as a model for lobbying regulation?

Mark Purcell: California.

Question 4: What kind of public reporting requirements should be required for lobbying? How much information should a citizen be able to find publicly about the activities of a lobbyist, and how should that information be made available?

Mark Purcell: Reporting requirements should give full disclosures like, name of entity, person, or firm working for, or representing entity. All information should be available for citizens to view. I can't think of any legitimate reason not to disclose all info. The information might be disclosed in a form submitted by the lobbyist.

Question 5: Should lobbyists be required to pay, through registration fees, for all costs involved in providing such registration/regulation/public reporting?

Mark Purcell: Yes.

Question 6: How important is lobbyist regulation/registration to you as an issue? Is this something you would see as a top priority for the General Assembly in your first session?

Mark Purcell: It is one of my top priorities along with other reforms like, term limits, and reducing the size of the General Assembly.

Bill Bostic has started his campaign to legitimize Pennsylvania's political bloggers by getting on a Pennsylvania Cable Network (PCN) talking heads show.

Specifically, he wants himself, or another blogger, at the table on Journalists Roundtable (JRT) that shows most Thursdays at 8 p.m.

Good luck to him, although I think it would be better if PCN came up with a Blogger Roundtable, and perhaps ran it every few weeks or so instead. I'm just not sure that the structure of the Journalists Roundtable lends itself to the richness and viewpoints of Pennsylvania's blogger community. But one step at a time, I guess.

Kudos. I believe this is an effort to crush the underground worm planning of one Chris Matthews as he hopes to ascent to Pennsylvania's U.S. Senator in 2010, using the "Lynn Swann celebrity supposed liberal Republican candidate" technique.

It's important for any Matthews for Senate trial balloon be quickly popped before it fills too greatly with his political flatulence.

But here's some interesting Pennsylvania-related blog posts:

Add a blog.

Reviews and points about the Bob Casey, Jr./Alan Sandals/Chuck Pennacchio debate:

Fact-esque

above average jane

Next Direction

Bob Casey, Jr., Alan Sandals, and Chuck Pennacchio all square off in the first of what appears to be only two debates for the Democratic Party candidate for U.S. Senate. For those that get Pennsylvania Cable Network, they will be broadcasting live at 7 PM. PCN will replay the debate at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 9.

Unfortunately, not many folks watch PCN on Saturday evening, so viewing is not going to be high. It would be useful if Pennsylvania bloggers would post their debate and candidate assessments after viewing. If you plan to watch and blog about the debate, please leave your blog URL in comments or email me and I'll link to your post after the debate.

Bonnie Dodge is running for the Pennsylvania State Senate District 18, currently held by Lisa Boscola. She graciously agreed to answer some questions about possible lobbying reform in the state of Pennsylvania:

Question 1: What should be the goals of any lobbying laws or reform in Pennsylvania?

Bonnie Dodge: Lobbying reform should identify and control spending by lobbyists, especially elected officials. By doing this, we could expose the activities of lobbyists and the correlation of lobbyist contributions and votes by legislators favoring those lobbyists demands.I have refused to accept any lobbyist, PAC, or special interest money in my campaign and will NOT even make appointments to see lobbyists in my offices when elected. If you look at the incumbent in my race, Lisa Boscola, you will see that the gambling interests, builders and related contracts, unions and other specific interests which put money into her campaigns are also granted appropriate votes. She never votes for medical tort reform unless the bills is destined to fail. She cannot possible vote for open space because she is part of the cabal which is building, building, building on every available parcel of land.

If you download the list of lobbyists currently registered with the PA State Ethics Comission, you will find the list to be 295 pages, and many of the lobbyists represent ten or more companies. Our state is the ONLY one which does not have a law of this type.

Question 2: What entity or entities should be responsible for administering these laws?

Bonnie Dodge: There should be an independent body, but not another bureaucratic level to government. That would be self-defeating!

Question 3: Are there any other states that could or should serve as a model for lobbying regulation?

Bonnie Dodge: I'm in contact with several other legislators in other states researching this at this time.

Question 4: What kind of public reporting requirements should be required for lobbying? How much information should a citizen be able to find publicly about the activities of a lobbyist, and how should that information be made available?

Bonnie Dodge: Lobbyists should have to report any and all donations within 48 hours. The information should fall under the right-to-know laws. It should be available upon request without cost to the taxpayer. What is now available can be retreived on the internet and I'm for that because it's easy to get.

Question 5: Should lobbyists be required to pay, through registration fees, for all costs involved in providing such registration/regulation/public reporting?

Bonnie Dodge: YES. The money they bake is exorbitant! It's essentially pure profit for the lobbyists, so why should the taxpayer pay anything?