Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Incumbent protection scheme degrades democracy

The Corruption Chronicles blog, a favorite of mine from Judicial Watch, writes that legislators in the Pennsylvania House use taxpayer funds to pay their staff for re-election campaign work. This includes House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese.

On the federal level, many of our representatives employ at least one full-time staff person for nothing but campaign work; but most presumably use their campaign funds. Judicial Watch's story pertains to the state of Pennsylvania legislature; who knows how many other state officeholders around our country employ the same tactic?

Using public funds to pay campaign workers is illegal; PA's state attorney general has launched an investigation into the taxpayer abuse. State legislators have a great responsibility to conduct themselves in an ethical manner, for thousands of voters entrust them with their leadership every two years. Incumbent protection schemes such as this degrade our democracy, and the fairness of our electoral system.

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