Thursday, January 25, 2007

Why Did McCain Vote Against Grassroots Lobbying Disclosure?

This morning on National Public Radio (NPR), OMB Watch executive director Gary Bass commented on the grassroots lobbying disclosure provision that the Senate voted against last week. The radio clip discussed how "even" Senator John McCain (R-AZ) voted against it, despite sponsoring legislation in the 109th Congress that called for disclosure of grassroots activities by paid lobbyists. Yet he now voted to strip it out of the ethics and lobbying reform bill, and as insinuated on NPR this morning, this was after conservative groups lobbied him. Such groups mistook the intent of the bill, which was not to silence citizen groups, but to let citizens know who is paying for large, expensive advocacy campaigns. Nevertheless, as commented during the NPR show, "a spokesman for McCain said the Senator didn't want genuine citizens' groups to get caught in the same net as actors such as Abramoff and Scanlon."

Wendy Wright is president of Concerned Women for America and another critic of the grassroots provision. "One thing I love about this is that grassroots activism helped to kill a threat to grassroots activism," said Wright. And Wright says she knows why McCain sided with the conservative groups: "...because he is running for president."

The OMB Watch Executive Director participated in the conversation as a voice representing those who lobbied for the measure. "Gary Bass says his side lost because the bill's sponsors had to defend other provisions while McCain gave cover to the conservative groups."

Read the transcript of the NPR story here.