For Dirty Pols Like Reichley and Harhart, We Need Clean Election Laws

Under cover of darkness in 2005, greasy hands made their way into your wallets. These thieves weren't worried about the law. They WERE the law. I'm referring to our friends in the land of midnight pay raises, who gave themselves a nice legislative raise less than two years ago.

Since that time, some of these miscreants have jumped ship for jobs as lobbyists or in some goofy state bureaucracy. But many bandits remain. These include two Lehigh County state representatives - Douglas Reichley and Julie Harhart. Both were overwhelmingly reelected, along with 88% of their pals. And I know why.

A Pittsburgh paper reveals Harhart ($190,805) and Reichley ($216,380) spent more of your money than anyone else in the state house over the last two years for "public service ads." These supposedly promote government services. But let's face it. They're just thinly disguised campaign ads. When a newspaper asked them to explain, you'd think they'd jump at the chance. After all, this is free advertising. But this is what we learn from Pittsburgh. "Reichley and Harhart could not be reached for comment."

Maybe they were taping.

By now, they've probably had time to cook up a story for the Morning Call, but I like their first answer.

Since candidates are already spending your money to get reelected, why not let them? That's the beauty of the clean elections laws. How does it work? A candidate collect a set number of small dollar qualifying contributions ($5 or $10), agrees to strict spending limits, and refuses further private money. Her campaign will be publicly funded. Participation is voluntary, which makes it difficult to claim an unconstitutional infringement on free speech.

Once elected, an incumbent can actually concentrate on issues instead of endless fundraising.

Six states have already adopted some form of clean elections laws. Last week, New Jersey's state senate extended its pilot project another year. Campaigns are also underway in nearby New York and Maryland.

Pennsylvania, which has so many problems, is a far cry from clean elections. But a movement is afoot.

There was a time when people understood that, even if they didn't pay close attention to what our elected officials were doing, they could expect to be treated, more or less, fairly because our system, our democracy, is a fair system.

But right now our democracy in not working. People rightly feel that their government no longer belongs to them - that their representatives are no longer working for them. Bringing Clean Elections to our state and national governments is the first step toward re-establishing our democracy.

If you think clean elections laws are worth pursuing, why not drop a line to reform@pahouse.net?