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?