Politics: CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM

I want to believe that my vote counts and that my legislative representatives work for me. I offer here a campaign finance reform idea that could do away with the pervasive corruption and dominance of special interests. I propose a private enterprise that would result in lots of entry-level white-collar jobs.

All but retiring legislators are perpetual candidates. What if all donations to every candidate for national public office were recorded - confidentially - by a sequestered “Bonded Treasurers Unit” assigned by, and accountable to, the FEC? A record of individual and business donors would be supplied to the candidates and legislators but without any information about size or number of donations associated with those names. Recording that identifying information would be the sole bonded purview of the "Bonded Treasurers Unit" Here's how it could work.

The functions of the Bonded Treasurers Unit would be to:

1.  receive all financial mail - paper and electronic;

2.  monitor donations for FEC violations, record and return inappropriate donations,

3.  submit to the FEC a list of violating contributors for investigation;

4.  make deposits to the candidate's campaign account;

5.  submit daily donation totals to the candidate's campaign committee;

6.  submit a weekly Donors' Contact Information list devoid of any financial details or duplicate donors to the candidate's campaign committee.

Each candidate would have a Bonded Treasurers Unit throughout their active political career, but the Unit and it's members would go through staggered rotations every year so that no staff would become entrenched or invested in any particular unit or any candidate's interests. A person would be on a candidate’s BTU for two years max: one year as a newby and the last year as trainer of his replacement.

Recording procedures would be uniform so that only new staff would need training. At the end of each two-person accuracy check of ten donation amounts entered into the system, a dated bank pass-code for that day would be entered that would delete all the figures.  “Joe Doe $100.00 12/23/11” becomes “Joe Doe 12/23/11.” The actual figures could only be retrieved for investigation by that pass-code which would be filed under a dated Unit pass-code. All staff members of a Unit would sign off on all reports and all would be held responsible for the accuracy and confidentiality of their output. Accuracy and confidentiality would be their primary goal and purpose. Leaking financial information would be a federal offense

Regional Bonded Treasurers Unit companies could be established by two year federal grants open to competition by private accounting entrepreneurs. The system could be staffed by bonded college graduates on stipend fulfilling two years of service to country. The grant proposals would include ways and means to make the service self-sustaining by the end of its second year.

Cynicism aside, this system could discourage "bundlers," special interest groups and large corporations from trying to buy legislative influence. If lobbyists were unable to verify contribution amounts from their sponsors via campaign records, candidates might only listen to the merits of their cause. I think this "privatized" system and the rotation of staff would lessen corruption and return power to the people and businesses of America who would fund campaigns with truly private donations.

What do you think?