My oh my, Pam Roach opened a real can of worms!

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COMMENT:  Pam Roach is, quite simply, a disgrace. Her record is full of these kind of vindictive episodes. Usually it is against fellow legislators and this is the first time she has been so blatantly mercenary, but really this is just more of the same from this shameful "representative of the people."  What she truly represents is the worst in politics: a pay-to-play, votes-for-sale lawmaker. And one with a nasty disposition to boot. Even those in her party know it. Her reelection is south king county's shame.
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A rare outburst of what money really means in politics
A state senator’s pique demonstrates how much money matters in politics — and why dark money is so dangerous.
By Danny Westneat, February 6, 2015

I would like to thank state Sen. Pam Roach for publicly acknowledging what really drives the complex affairs of politics and public policymaking.

Namely money. With a dose of revenge.

Roach, R-Loose Cannon, or, depending on your point of view, R-She-Says-What-Nobody-Else-Will, was chairing a Senate committee Thursday when in a major breach of political protocol she decided to tell everyone what was really going on.

The businesspeople seated in front of her to testify on a bill had contributed money to her opponent in the last election, she announced. This was horrible, and it wouldn’t go unpunished.

“I think it’s terrible, myself. You need to know where your money’s going,” she scolded one of the shellshocked panelists. “Because you know what? I won.”

This was a great moment in government transparency. You never hear politicians speak frankly about money or how it affects them. If you ask who donates to them, or how much, they usually beg off, saying they don’t keep close track. Some even act insulted at the question — a grand here or there couldn’t possibly matter.

But they know exactly who their moneyed friends and enemies are. Roach is volatile, yes. But her outburst was the best argument I’ve seen for why campaign-finance-disclosure laws are so important.

If lawmakers care that much who gave what to whom, and base their public behavior on it, then shouldn’t you know, too?

If private forces are using money to push a public agenda, whatever it is, then you ought to have a right to know that, too. (The backstory here was that the donations were from grocery businesses, and the testimony before Roach was on a grocery-backed bill to regulate the initiative-signature gatherers who gather in front of stores.)

This is why the news was so disturbing last month that the multibillionaire Koch brothers plan to raise nearly $900 million for the next congressional and presidential elections. That’s so much cash it rivals the influence of the two major political parties. But what’s truly toxic is that the donors, and their specific agendas, will be secret.

U.S. Supreme Court rulings such as Citizens United not only allow unlimited spending on elections by private groups but gives them ways to avoid disclosing it. You often won’t know which groups favor which candidates and for what reasons.

Your elected officials will know, though. They will be sitting up there on the dais with thought bubbles about who in the room gave them money, who they may owe favors to and who their financial opponents are.

But unless one of them erupts about it out of pique like Pam Roach (not likely), democracy will go careening along in the dark.

There’s no way to stop the Kochs or environmentalist billionaire Tom Steyer from pouring their fortunes into politics. The answer is to shine a light. Instead of no disclosure, in the digital age there ought to be daily reports of who’s backing whom.

And when the rich say nobody needs to know, because their giving doesn’t affect lawmakers much anyway, watch this hearing with Senator Roach. It sure seems to matter to those on the receiving end.

[snipped]
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