Rick Bielke's blog

Fair Elections Act on NPR

Rick Bielke — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 12:16:02 -0500

National Public Radio's Peter Overby covered yesterday's Fair Elections Now Act announcement. You can listen to the clip after the jump.

Former Sen. Edwards Calls For Publicly Financed Elections

Rick Bielke — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 14:55:27 -0500

This past Friday, former Senator and current presidential candidate John Edwards called for public financing of all elections during an interview on Real Time With Bill Maher. You can watch a clip of the interview after the jump.

Ralph Reed Concedes

Rick Bielke — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 21:22:13 -0500

It's official, Ralph Reed has ended his bid for Lieutenant Governor of Georgia.

Read the statement by David Donnelly, Director, Campaign Money Watch, below.

Here is the AP story.

CREW Wants To Send Pombo Up The River

Rick Bielke — Fri, 05 May 2006 12:14:21 -0500

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a government watchdog group, called on both the I.R.S. and Congress to investigate Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) for alleged ethical violations.

Taylor Stops Blocking Funding For Memorial

Rick Bielke — Fri, 05 May 2006 10:58:06 -0500

As posted in our blog back on April 25, Rep. Charles Taylor (R-NC) was making it his own personal mission to prevent funding to buy land for a September 11 memorial in Pennsylvania to honor those killed on Flight 93. His excuse? He was worried that enough private funding wouldn’t be raised and the government would have to foot the bill for the memorial. This is the same Rep. Taylor who helped secure a $3 million appropriation for a Jack Ambramoff client.

Santorum Loves To Fly…Corporate Style

Rick Bielke — Wed, 03 May 2006 14:52:54 -0500

Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) has co-sponsored a bill along with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) that would curb the use of corporate jets by politicians. Currently, members of congress can use these jets (which are provided by the likes of Bell South and Wal-Mart among others) as long as they reimburse the company the amount of a first class fare—which is currently $6,995. Problem is Santorum is one of the abusers of this perk.

Abramoff and DeLay May Have New Hampshire Phone Jamming Connection

Rick Bielke — Mon, 01 May 2006 12:09:26 -0500

Democrats and Republicans have been going back and forth about a phone jamming scheme that GOP operatives conducted targeting a phone bank on behalf of Democratic New Hampshire Senatorial candidate Jeanne Shaheen back in 2002 (and as reported by Josh Marshall over at TalkingPointsMemo.com).

Doolittle Wants Congress To Do Little With Ethics Reform

Rick Bielke — Mon, 01 May 2006 08:03:36 -0500

According to Sunday's Washington Post, Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) thinks voters have little or no interest in ethics reform. Doolittle told a reporter "Do I think they care about it? No I don't." We disagree.

Sen. Kennedy on The Daily Show

Rick Bielke — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 16:41:15 -0500

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) was on The Daily Show last Thursday, April 20, (sorry for the delay but I was on vacation) promoting his new book, and, calling on the need for public financing of elections.

Click here to watch the clip where he talks about money in politics (requires Real Player)

The Other NRA

Rick Bielke — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 16:11:29 -0500

According to Roll Call (subscription required), one of the nation's biggest PAC's, the National Restaurant Association's PAC, has asked permission from the FEC to solicit money from the general public for candidates of their choosing, most of whom they have already contributed to and/or publicly endorsed.