[Vision2020] The Wall Between Contractors and Politics

[Art Deco]

  [image: The New York Times] <http://www.nytimes.com/>


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March 25, 2012
The Wall Between Contractors and Politics

Since 1940, it has been illegal for federal government contractors to
contribute to federal political campaigns or parties. But in the new
unregulated, unlimited jungle of campaign finance, Mitt Romney’s super PAC
is allowing some contractors to violate that historic ban, taking yet
another dangerous step toward a culture where government business is done
on a pay-to-play basis.

The ban on contractor
donations<http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/2/14/I/441c>is a broad
one, applying to “any political party, committee, or candidate
for public office, or to any person for any political purpose or use.” It
goes back seven decades to the Hatch Act, and was designed to eliminate two
practices that had led to corruption in Washington: companies using
political donations to bribe their way to a lucrative federal contract, and
lawmakers extorting money from companies that wished to do business with
the government.

That law has remained on the books in various forms — though,
unfortunately, it was watered down a bit in the 1970s to allow contractors
to set up political-action committees that accept money from their
employees and then donate it to candidates. But the ban on contractors
using their own money to contribute was unchanged.

The Citizens United decision allowed corporations and unions to contribute
unlimited amounts to so-called independent political groups, but it did not
address the contractor ban. Given the long history of that ban, most
third-party groups wisely assumed that it remained in place. For example,
American Crossroads, the conservative super PAC formed by Karl Rove, requires
donors to certify <https://www.americancrossroads.org/donate/> that the
money does not come “from the treasury of an entity or person who is a
federal contractor.” The same requirement is made by the super PACs
supporting President Obama, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul.

But not Mr. Romney’s super PAC, Restore Our
Future<http://restoreourfuture.com/donate/>,
which does not impose that condition. The Los Angeles Times recently
reported<http://articles.latimes.com/2012/mar/18/nation/la-na-contractor-politics-20120318>that
the group has accepted donations from at least five government
contractors, totaling $890,000. The biggest was from Oxbow Carbon, founded
by the billionaire William Koch, which has a contract to sell coal to the
Tennessee Valley Authority. One engineering contractor asked for a refund
after being contacted by the newspaper, but not the others.

Restore Our Future officials would not discuss their thinking, but if they
believe that Citizens United gives them immunity from the contractor ban,
they are on shaky legal ground.

The Federal Election Commission
decision<http://saos.nictusa.com/aodocs/AO%202010-11.pdf>that gave
birth to the first super PAC did so explicitly with the
understanding that the group would not take contractor money. And in a
current lawsuit <http://www.fec.gov/law/litigation/wagner.shtml> brought by
a group of small contractors who want to contribute to political campaigns,
the F.E.C. has made it
clear<http://www.fec.gov/law/litigation/wagner_fec_opp_mot_prelim_inj.pdf>that
it believes the ban remains in effect “to serve important government
interests in deterring corruption.” Lifting the ban during a campaign,
F.E.C. lawyers wrote, could damage public confidence in the
campaign-finance and contracting systems.

Mr. Romney improbably claims his campaign has nothing to do with his super
PAC, but if it acquires a reputation for skirting the law, it will rub off
on him, too. He should make clear that he wants the group to return all
contractor contributions, and accept no more of them.


-- 
Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
art.deco.studios at gmail.com
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