VERMONTVILLE, MI, October 18, 2009
/24-7PressRelease/ -- During the 2008 election cycle, more than $34 million was spent lobbying Michigan legislators and supporting political candidates. That's more special interest money than in the history of Michigan elections.
"Special interest money overshadows our state government and smothers our elections," says Bob Robinson, a candidate for State Representative of Eaton County in 2010.
"Citizens watch in disbelief as our government officials make decisions with seemingly little common sense. People wonder why there's no logic to some of the laws enacted. But the full story is often told if you follow the money trail and track lobby spending and the campaign donations that are made by special interests."
There are effective tools to help voters track the source of money provided to political campaigns.
Citizens can do this in three easy ways online.
1.Obtain the list of top Michigan lobbyists by visiting the Michigan Campaign Finance Network (MCFN) Web site at http://www.mcfn.org. The MCFN conducts research on campaign contributions and their relationship to election outcomes and issues of public policy.
2. Go to the Web site, http://www.followthemoney.org, a nonprofit, nonpartisan Web site that tracks the influence of money on state-level elections and public policy. By entering your zip code, a complete summary of special interest contributions to the campaigns of your local representatives will be provided.
3. Visit http://www.votesmart.org, a nonprofit, volunteer Web site that tracks the voting records of state legislators throughout the country. By entering your state and locale, the voting record of district representatives is displayed. (This public information is also listed by the Michigan Legislature at http://www.legislature.mi.gov.)
Voters may see a correlation between the lobby money spent by an organization, how much they've contributed to a legislator's campaign, and how that lawmaker votes on legislation.
"If a legislator repeatedly votes in favor of power companies, is it correlated to the campaign financing that he or she receives from those power companies?," asks Robinson. "One can only surmise that it does, and that's why my campaign will decline lobby money."
Running without lobby money is unprecedented for a state level legislative race in Eaton County. Candidates like Robinson who refuse special interest contributions do so by choice. This makes funding a campaign extremely difficult.
"But it's not impossible," says Robinson. "There are Michigan legislators who have done it and it enables them to vote on their constituents behalf without a conflict of interest. Imagine the signal that sends to special interest groups."
For more information, go to district71.com
Bob Robinson for State Representative Election Committee. On Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/district71; Facebook at http://facebook.dj/district71
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