Now disgraced and convicted former Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens laid it out clearly to the undercover feds offering bribes to Mississippi politicians.
Owens, according to a federal indictment, explained the politicians would “clean (the bribes) like we always do, we’ll put it in a campaign account …”
“Owens also explained that because public officials finance their personal lives through their campaign accounts, campaign contributions were the most effective way to influence them, so long as the money came from within the state of Mississippi,” the indictment said.
Mississippi’s weak, jumbled and conflicting campaign finance laws, along with nearly nonexistent enforcement and meager transparency, are a recipe for political corruption and the corrosive influence of secretive big-money special interests.
The conviction of Owens, former Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and two City Council members in an FBI bribery sting in which campaign accounts played a prominent role, makes the need for Mississippi campaign finance reform and transparency clear and present.
There have been some, mostly ineffectual, efforts at reform over many years. But the Mississippi Legislature has largely treated these efforts like the plague. The one thing on which most lawmakers appear to agree, be they on the far right, far left or somewhere in between, is that they don’t want any real regulation or transparency over their tax-exempt campaign finance accounts.
Going on a decade ago, lawmakers passed what was billed as a prohibition on personal use of campaign funds. This came after an embarrassing series of news articles about Mississippi politicians using their campaign funds for vacation trips, paying their taxes, a BMW for a family member, an RV to park at Disney World, paying themselves and family, hiring a personal injury lawyer and even buying an $800 pair of cowboy boots.
But the law lacked teeth or clear enforcement authority and, it would appear from what Owens told the undercover FBI agents, politicians still use campaign accounts as personal slush funds. Or, to occasionally launder tens of thousands of dollars in bribes.
Secretary of State Michael Watson has for the last few years pushed for reform, with some assistance from Senate Elections Chairman Jeremy England, but the Legislature has snuffed the efforts out. Such reform hasn’t even gotten a real hearing in the House.
Mississippi voters don’t even stand a fighting chance at figuring out who’s buying our politicians. Most other states, including all those surrounding Mississippi, have searchable databases of campaign contributions. Politicians elsewhere, including Congress, have been required to file campaign finance reports electronically for years, in some cases decades.
But not in Mississippi, nay, nay. Politicians can, if they so choose, file handwritten, illegible reports, in crayon if they like (one candidate did hers in calligraphy years ago).
Campaign finance reports are not as routine checked by anyone for legibility, completeness or accuracy, and they are stored as un-searchable PDFs. Some politicians have filed blank forms. Or, as has been done with little consequence, they can just not file reports. Mayor Lumumba went for three years without filing a report, and when questioned just noted that is “not uncustomary for my campaign.”
A former state lawmaker once filed a report listing a $1,000 expense as “Auto GAS-Travel” for the payee, “CASH” for the address and “Auto GAS (CASH)” as the purpose for the campaign spending. A $5,000 expense was labeled as “Casual Labors” with no other explanation.
Watson has a new computer system at the secretary of state’s office and is creating an online filing system. He has pushed lawmakers to require electronic campaign finance filing, but to no avail.
“I wonder how many cases like this it will take for the Legislature to finally pass common sense and strong campaign finance reform?” Watson said after recent guilty pleas in the Jackson federal corruption case.
The legislative arguments against even having to file reports that the public can easily decipher have been asinine.
Longtime Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, has repeatedly argued that requiring Mississippi candidates to fill out an electronic form for campaign donations and spending would be too onerous. He said that using technology that’s been in most people’s homes – or pockets, with cell phones – for decades would prohibit some from running for office.
The Mississippi public at-large perhaps hasn’t tripped to the fact that it’s being kept in the dark more than other states’ residents or that the state’s lack of campaign finance, lobbying and ethics laws are an open invite to corruption and special interest control.
Meanwhile, more and more money flows into Mississippi campaigns. Even legislative races have become more expensive affairs, with campaigns sometimes raising and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars. In recent election cycles, we’ve seen millions of dollars of dark money flow into campaigns and PACs and what would appear to be flagrant violations of what few rules and limits the state does have – should anyone try to enforce them.
But ironically, the only time this has appeared to be a real issue with lawmakers is during recent attempts to reinstate the public’s right to sidestep the Legislature and place measures directly on a statewide ballot.
In that case, many lawmakers have said as they have repeatedly shot down ballot initiative reinstatement, they fear big-money special interests might improperly influence such proposals and campaigns and co-opt voters.
Maybe they’re worried that would leave less money for them.
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