Public Citizen/Texans for Public Justice

Austin—Two Texas public interest groups, Public Citizen and Texans for Public Justice, called on all candidates for statewide and legislative offices with access to a computer to file voluntary electronic campaign reports with the Texas Ethics Commission.

"You can pay your bills, do your grocery shopping or buy airline tickets on the Internet. It's time to put vital information about our elected officials on there as well," said Craig McDonald, director of Texans For Public Justice. "When it comes to the public's right to know who pays for political campaigns, we're living in the stone age. Surely political information that cuts to the heart of the democratic system is at least as important as the commercial information that's already on line."

Electronic filing would give Texans from El Paso to Texarkana access to basic information about who funds their elected officials' campaigns. While Texas law requires campaign finance reporting, most candidates just file paper reports with the Texas Ethics Commission in Austin.

"Bubba wants to know who's funding his politicians," said Public Citizen director Tom "Smitty" Smith. "Disclosure delayed is disclosure denied. Today's system denies most of us access to information when we want it and need it. Paper and scanned reports can't be searched easily to determine whether lobbyists or special interests are funding a particular campaign," said Smith. "The end result is that the public is usually kept in the dark."

The two groups also called on the Legislature to:

• Make electronic filing mandatory under state election law;
• Give the Ethics Commission the resources and a mandate to post all candidate contribution and spending data on the commission's web page in a searchable database;
• Require occupation and employer data to be provided as a condition of accepting any contribution;
• Require registered lobbyists to be identified as such on all contribution reports; and
• Require filers to report cash on hand at the time of each filing.

Lawmakers could exclude modest campaigns that fall below a very low fundraising threshold, given that these campaigns may lack the resources to produce computerized records.

Under pressure from the Houston Chronicle and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram earlier this month, Governor George W. Bush filed some of his contributions reports electronically.

As of August 17, 1998, just 31 incumbent legislators¹, including Speaker Pete Laney, had filed electronic reports for the latest reporting period. The two groups applauded all electronic filers and urged their colleagues to follow their examples.

"We've got a long way to go with campaign finance reform in Texas, and this is the best place to start," said McDonald. "The candidates can prove their commitment to open government by filing electronically this year. Virtually every statewide and legislative campaign in Texas now uses computers. The technology is in place. There's no defensible reason to wait."

¹Senators Ken Armbrister, Tom Haywood, Frank Madla, Steve Ogden and John Whitmire. Representatives Clyde Alexander, Dennis Bonnen, Norma Chavez, Wayne Christian, Garnet Coleman, Robby Cook, Tom Craddick, Mary Denny, Joe Driver, Gary Elkins, Bob Glaze, Tony Goolsby, Pat Haggerty, Jim Horn, Suzanna Hupp, Pete Laney, Tommy Merritt, Al Price, Irma Rangel, Bill Ratliff, Richard Raymond, Jim Solis, Tom Uher, Miguel Wise, Ken Yarbrough and Zen Zbranek.