The mixture of campaign politics and money leaves voters more than a little suspicious. One response has been to shine a light on campaign contributions through public disclosure. New Hampshire has lagged behind many states in making that information as easy to use as possible. But now, the Secretary of State is about to bring the state's campaign finance reporting system into the 21st century. New Hampshire Public Radio's Jon Greenberg has more.
About 25 years ago, when Watergate was still a recent memory, the state began requiring candidates and their committees to report who was giving them money, how much they gave, and how the money was spent.
Today, that practice lives on. If you stopped by the Secretary of State's office today and asked to see the latest reports, a brown haired woman at the front desk, Paula Penny, would be happy to help.
CUT I'd take you over to this filing cabinet over here and you'd see this particular drawer has state representative and county offices for 2002 (sound of drawer opening) you'd open this drawer and find a somewhat alphabetic listing of those files. // JG: Has anyone ever estimated how many pieces of paper move through here during an election?// PP: Oh, not that I know of, but it's a lot"
It takes about two elections to fill all the drawers in three filing cabinets. All the information that voters might care to know is here. But making sense of it is a daunting task. Which is why Deputy Secretary of State, David Scanlan, is looking forward to the launch of what is called electronic campaign finance reporting.
CUT When it's online, people will be able to find a candidate's name or a political action committee's name, pull it up, push a button and be able to view the report online on their computer screen.
In a very limited way, Scanlan's office does some of this already. For the bigger races, governor, executive council and state senate, pictures of their reports are on the web. But what Scanlan has in mind is something completely different. With the new system, contributors' names and their amounts will be in a data table. And finding patterns of giving in such a database is a snap.
The odd thing is, if you look at the original paper reports submitted by the campaigns, you'll see quite a few that came straight out of a computer in the first place. Warren Henderson, head of the state Republican Party, says the potential convenience of electronic filing for candidates makes enormous sense.
CUT Most of these records of contributions are already kept electronically. So if they can be conveyed electronically, there's probably labor savings for the campaigns. And if it makes it easier to make the information available, that seems healthy for democracy.
The advent of electronic filing enjoys bi-partisan support. The ranking Democrat on the House election law committee, Jim Splaine from Portsmouth, says the greater access to information it allows gets at the heart of public mistrust of government.
CUT The biggest problem in politics, nationally, statewide, locally, is the influence of money. And as we see campaigns costing more and more, and people willing to put money into campaigns, more than they ever have before, people aren't contributing just to have the best candidate in office. They're contributing because they want their telephone calls answered.
Many of the details of online reporting have yet to be worked out and in that process, some partisan differences may emerge. Splaine would like every contender for state office to use the new system – even those house of representative candidates who raise and spend 15-hundred dollars or less. And Splaine thinks online reporting should be mandatory.
Henderson on the Republican side thinks that won't be necessary because candidates will want to file online just for the convenience. He'd rather rely on an incentive, rather than a rule.
CUT Being a philosophical conservative, I'm always suspicious of a mandate. I think anytime that voluntary compliance gets to a desired objective, that's better than a mandate.
But the experience elsewhere suggests that the choice between a voluntary or mandatory program makes a big difference. About half the states already use electronic filing. The Center for Governmental Studies, a nonpartisan research organization that focuses on election practices, has compared participation rates under the voluntary and mandatory options. Bob Stern, president at the Center, says in the rough and tumble of politics, the convenience of online filing is buried by the desire to win.
CUT If you make it voluntary, many campaigns won't participate because they feel they're sending in their information earlier and in a better format than their opponents and they don't want to be at a disadvantage.
However, Stern also says it would be a mistake to force every campaign to file online. Such a rule might deter the more humble candidates with their small budgets from running at all. His group suggests that states set a threshold dollar amount. Above it, filing is mandatory. Below – it is optional.
As planning for the new system moves forward, one group seems likely to receive particular attention. Lobbyists. They are in business to advance certain agendas. Democratic Representative Splaine says contributing money to campaigns is one of their more important tools.
CUT That's good. That's OK. That's democracy. That's their right. But it's always good to know who's buying – who's paying for whose campaign.
Splaine says his committee in the house will start work in January to come up with rules for the new system. The secretary of state's office hopes to have online campaign finance reporting in place in time for the 2006 elections.
Their filing cabinets will still be used, but perhaps, they won't fill up as quickly.
For NHPR News, I'm Jon Greenberg.
