Rep. Coulson calls kettle black

State Representative Elizabeth Coulson (R-17, Glenview) today came out swinging against one of the strongest opponents she's faced in years. In this Winnetka Today article on her upcoming reelection campaign, Rep. Coulson complains about Democratic challenger Daniel Biss using the benign ActBlue Illinois PAC fundraising tool:

That Biss reported donations totaling $19,150 from "Act Blue," a national Web site that allows Democrats to set up accounts to raise money for candidates of their choosing, bothers Coulson.

"Act Blue" donations are reported in lump sums, but individual contributors through "Act Blue" are not required to be identified "so we don't know where the money is coming from," Coulson said. "It's a (political action committee) that raises money from all around the country. It's exactly the kind of PAC we've tried to address in ethics reform."

(As clarification, there is an "ActBlue" federal PAC and an "ActBlue Illinois" state PAC. Mr. Biss' donations have come from the state PAC, ActBlue Illinois.)

You can see for yourself exactly that ActBlue is basically a means for candidates and campaigns to easily process political donations. Rep. Coulson, political animal that she is (that's a joke, friends), tries to misconstrue that basic function by pointing out that the donations that come into ActBlue Illinois for Mr. Biss are aggregated together such that the Biss campaign does not have to reveal who the actual donors are.

I understand the trepidation there but Rep. Coulson is conveniently ignoring two facts, making her appear a bit hypocritical.

First, because it is an Illinois registered PAC, ActBlue Illinois's donations to state-level candidates must be listed on the ActBlue Illinois D-2 forms. Reporter Stiefel writes that ActBlue reports in "lump sums" which is technically true -- transfers to candidates are reported as a lump sum on that candidate's D-2 form.

But, ActBlue's own D-2s themselves must, by law, list the individual contributors of $200 or more. Anyone can look up that info and find out the names of the donors, just as with any other registered Illinois candidate, campaign or PAC. Moreover, since Mr. Biss is currently the only state-level candidate in the Land of Lincoln using ActBlue Illinois, it's very simple to determine the donors intending to raise funds specifically for him.

And that's precisely what Mr. Biss himself is now doing. An advocate of ethical and transparent governance himself, he immediately recognized the issue as being important and resolved it by simply listing every donor over $200 that has contributed to his campaign via ActBlue Illinois. In other words, Mr. Biss is going above and beyond by applying state law -- disclosing $200+ donors -- before such a law even exists. (In fact, he even lists several donors who fall under that threshold.)

Mr. Biss states:

Due to a quirk in campaign finance law, contributions made via ActBlue are listed in a separate section of Illinois's campaign finance disclosures. This has caused some people to wonder whether transparency is compromised. Actually, ActBlue gives rise to greater transparency. For example, my ActBlue hub actually says how many contributions I've received in addition to the total dollar amount; it also breaks this information down for each fundraiser. However, the confusion is understandable. I am deeply committed to openness and transparency in politics, and consequently, I am using this page to supplement the information provided in the Illinois disclosures. (link is original)

The second fact Rep. Coulson chooses to overlook is that she herself receives PAC money ... a lot of PAC money.

In just the past two years, Rep. Coulson has accepted well over $100,000 in PAC money (seek out "Transfers In" on the D-2 forms). Remember, Mr. Biss had only raised $19,150 via the ActBlue Illinois PAC up to the end of the latest reporting period.

ArchPundit points out that, to be intellectually honest on this topic, Rep. Coulson ought to now determine who all the donors to all those myriad PACs are that have helped her own campaign and publicly disclose those individuals (just as Mr. Biss immediately did).

In addition, the Winnetka Today reporter, Lynne Stiefel, in a follow-up article about the 17th district ought to disclose some of the basic information I've discussed here (chiefly, that it's relatively easy to determine who ActBlue Illinois donors are and that Rep. Coulson has taken in more than $100,ooo of PAC money in just the last two years herself).

For how much Republicans nationwide complain that people ought to be able to donate however much they want to political campaigns (as a "free speech" issue, which I suppose implies that money talks), Rep. Coulson sure has an odd way of showing it.

(c/p at Illinois Reason)