NJ-7: Ed Potosnak proposes campaign finance sunshine

by: Rosi Efthim

Wed Aug 04, 2010 at 04:05:21 PM EDT

The idea is that if taxpayers knew how much of their hard-earned money went into this kind of backdoor campaigning, congressional representatives might spend less of it. Potosnak isn't telling Lance - or any incumbent - to stop reaching out to constituents on the public's dime - he's asking his opponent to report to his constituents how much of their money he's spending doing that. Campaign finance sunshine - this is good. Smart. Clean. Decent. Frankly, I'd appreciate all New Jersey incumbents doing that - of both parties.

This week, Potosnak says, Congressional office disbursement statements from the first 3 months of 2010 show Lance spent over $131,000 to send 1.2 million pieces of mail to NJ-7 voters - during an election year. The franking privilege goes largely unexamined by voters, but amounts to a tremendous financial advantage incumbents enjoy, because some of them use it to trumpet their own achievements without sticking on a stamp. It amounts to campaigning at taxpayer's expense.

That same Congressional report says Lance spent about 20 times more of the public's money on franking privilege mail in the first quarter of (election year) 2010, than he did in the first quarter of (non-election-year) 2009.

Lance narrowly won his Republican primary in June - receiving the smallest amount of support of any NJ incumbent.

Potosnak says that one of the things he wants to do when he gets to Congress is offer legislation requiring all members of Congress to print the cost of that mailer on the mailer itself, so people know in real time what that mail is costing them. His bill would also require lawmakers post a section on their official government website, with a running total of how much has been spent on printing and sending franking privilege snail mail.