48 Hour Report Phobia and Political Transparency

When federal candidates are needlessly embarrassed publicly, for failing to follow basic disclosure rules,    the FEC wins,         the First Amendment is assaulted, and              candidate credibility goes out the window.Such is the case with Friends of Sharron Angle, the US Senate campaign who just forked over more than $25k of the hard-earned money of its loyal contributors to the US Treasury.First the law that was broken: the FEC’s required “48-hour Reports” is the redundant reporting of $1,000, or more, every 48-hrs for the last 20 days before an election. All itemized contributions must be disclosed in quarterly or monthly reports anyway, so the 48-hr. notice period is intended to promote transparency in allowing the public to see what the campaign is taking in, and from whom, at the “last minute.”If the campaign does not follow the very simple guidelines during 48-hr. reporting, it is essentially robbing the affected donations (and therefore donors) of First Amendment action. The $25k fine that the Angle campaign paid was intended for campaign operations, not the black hole that is the US Treasury. Think of it this way: A loyal supporter contributed $1,000 to the Angle campaign during 48-hr. reporting and was not disclosed on a 48-hr. report. Basically, the campaign has just sent the very generous donation into the hands of the US Treasury, where it may end up appropriated toward Planned Parenthood, the NEA, or any one of a million government-funded operations that the donor may quite strongly oppose!Troubling as it is for campaigns, in principle, to submit to the FEC’s 48-hr reporting, it’s not worth these certain consequences for non-compliance. Ironically, these public disclosure reports are often not posted online at fec.gov until days after the election has taken place!Still, despite the FEC’s failure to promptly publish the 48-hr. reports, the reports must be filed so that the FEC will be able to compare and match each 48-hr. report item to the campaign’s next quarterly or monthly report. That is how the Angle campaign was “caught” during its audit; proving there is just no way around 48-hr. reporting. But 48-hr. reporting phobia often panics a campaign into non-compliance, and in turn, the campaign breaks an implied contract with its supporters by surrendering donations intended for a hard-fought campaign.

Does this really say that Sharon Angle did not understand the campaign finance laws and hired an in house accountant to handle this matter? Not understanding the law or accounting makes her the perfect Republican candidate.

-Anonymous Comment regarding the Angle campaign fine.

This question, we’ll assume rhetorical, submitted Wednesday after breaking news of the Angle campaign’s fine, speaks to the damage done to the public’s faith in a candidate who campaigns on a message of representing her state in an honest, ethical and integrity-driven, law-abiding manner.The connection between the First Amendment and political contributions is clear: Donors “speak” with their personal funds, in favor of the candidate who will represent them best in Congress. Some donors speak more “loudly” than others in this analogy, for example, when they contribute $1,000 or more. If they do so within the 48-hr. reporting period, they must be disclosed on both the relevant 48-hr. notice AND the next quarterly or monthly FEC report that is due.The question above that was submitted online yesterday in response to the Angle mess also highlights the destruction of candidate credibility when even the campaign’s internal procedures do not yield compliance with federal law. (Would you vote for a judge running for election in your town if her teenaged kids were constantly having raucous house parties from which noise pollution, vandalism and drunk driving emerged? Of course not!)Candidates, often forget the purpose of their organization is not to raise an unprecedented war chest and then not tap it for the best resources possible that can lead to a win. Having an in-house staffer responsible for knowing the laws and ramifications for non-compliance may be a “fiscally conservative” way to manage a campaign treasury, but the risks vastly outweigh the benefit of saving campaign money – that could eventually be lost to FEC fines.When the public sees a candidate who doesn’t seem to have a grasp on either the Rule of Law or the financial lifespan of a political campaign (vs. private enterprise, for-profit businesses), the public will not endorse such a lapsed candidate.48-hr. phobia can be eradicated by turning your data management, compliance and accounting work over to campaign data and finance experts. It’s not the cheapest option up-front, but much less expensive than FEC fines and political collapse. Trusting an inexperienced staffer, or even an otherwise highly-experienced consultant who lacks only the accuracy of a tested software program, to adhere to the ever-changing, often misunderstood, and irregularly enforced rules of the FEC, is a risk serious campaigns will not take. While 48-hr. reporting is only one very small part of the disclosure rules governing campaigns today, it’s also one of the more simple requirements to follow.These are the steps that you can take to avoid the embarrassment and public scrutiny of the Angle campaign:

1. Identify the 48-hr. reporting period(s) for the specific election(s) at hand on the FEC website.
   
   
   
2. Purchase quality, tested, Republican software that can identify items to be reported that also marks those items as “reported” to allow for irregularities to be spotted immediately. With that in mind…
   
   
   
3. Consider your sources. Without an integrated, communicating online/database solution, you must be certain that you have “loaded” all donation receipts from your online source daily, and prior to your search for donations qualified for 48-hr. reporting.
   
   
   
4. Prepare a 20-day filing schedule so that 48-hr. notices are filed every two days to include the donations of $1000 or more from the previous two days. Considering the above, it is sometimes best for a campaign to report just one day’s worth of receipts every 48-hr.s in order to run double-checks for any contributions that are missed in a manual system that is more likely to falter due to simple human error.
   
   
   
5. The concerns in items 3 and 4 above can be automatically managed by a software solution such as Crimson, which can identify items to be reported for each 48-hr. notice, prepare & validate each report for you, and mark each item as “reported” in the database.
   
   
   
6. Fax 48-hr. reports to the Senate Office of Public Record at 202-224-1851 with a request for a confirmation-fax of their receipt of the report.
   
   
   
7. Congratulate yourself for being in full compliance of the law, serving your candidate and constituents well, and denying the FEC another opportunity to seize campaign funds for the US government’s use!