In 1974, the people of Alaska, in response to
non-responding politicians did form by initiative the Alaska Public
Offices Commission (APOC). From that day forward politicians from
the major political parties have sought to discredit, under fund and
in any other manner do away with APOC. With their finances out in
the open for the public to examine it proved more and more difficult
for special interests to buy them without a hue and cry from the
people. The smoke-filled back rooms got smaller and smaller.
Fast
forward to 2003. The governor's letter of transmittal to the Senate
reference SB119, says: "APOC and campaign finance laws were
generally established to accomplish three major goals: to restrict
financial contributions to campaigns, to provide information to the
general public as to who is contributing to whom, and enforce those
laws. Under the current campaign finance model, APOC, has ultimately
failed in all three areas."
This
statement is blatantly untrue and totally misleading. The APOC
system does restrict we the people from donating to the people of
our choice, since once that is common knowledge we all know what
happens if you support a non-winner. Regular folks fear the response
from the high and mighty and rightly so, sadly. Only special
interest donate for the large majority of donations can be traced
directly to them. How, you ask? The second point, APOC does in fact
post the submissions of the candidates in a timely manner.
Electronic filings were posted in less than two
working days, those mailed took longer because the limited staff had
to enter each and every page manually. I chose the mail simply to
keep elephants and donkeys in the dark as long as possible in the
heat of battle. The last item on investigations is due solely to the
politicians both under funding APOC, and stonewalling the
investigator as long as possible, for sure until after the election
cycle. One massive complex complaint will take a good investigator
months to resolve. Our one investigator received 26 complaints in
the last cycle. Small wonder with the stonewalling and shear volume
that it takes time to wade through that mountain of paperwork and
there are delays.
Our
politicians on both sides of the aisle have a history of gutting,
diluting and repealing voter initiatives. Your choice is clear:
Return to the dark ages or fight back so at least there is one
neutral place in the entire election process dedicated for we the
people. No political party should be vested with these
responsibilities, including my own. All political parties have a
vested conflict of interest, which cannot be denied.
Remember, the same political party that forced closed primaries on
Alaska now says they are unbiased and will sit in sole judgment of
the political finance laws and violations enforcement. If you
believe that, we are doomed already.
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