Watchdog groups say Virginia lawmakers are blurring the line between their campaigns and official duties as representatives.
To see what lawmakers send voters with your tax dollars you have to go to the basement of a House office building. Photos are banned. Only black and white copies leave the sparse room. The privilege of elected office is dubbed franked mail – even though lawmakers now use it to buy Facebook, Twitter and Google ads. Lawmakers are alerted each time a reporter, researcher or political opponent asks to see what they’ve sent voters.
Why all the secrecy? Melanie Sloan, the director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, says it’s because there’s a thin line between official constituent services and campaigning.
“I think it’s complicated because we’re also in a permanent campaign. So no one’s ever finished campaigning. And everything particularly a House member puts out is always geared toward persuading their constituents that they should be re-elected next cycle.”
Northern Virginia Democratic Congressman Gerry Connolly disagrees. “I think franked mail is a tool that can be used to communicate with your constituents.”
The Senate caps franked mail spending at $59,000, so most don’t use the privilege because it’s hard to communicate to an entire state with just fifty thousand dollars. But there’s no limit in the House. From 1997 to 2008, House members averaged spending just over $50,000 on postage.
Last year Connolly spent more than ninety four thousand of your tax dollars…on mostly glossy, color pamphlets with pictures of him at his office declaring his support for federal workers. He says that’s an important way for him to let his constituents where he stands.
“Obviously if you abuse that tool I think your constituents will punish you. I mean, our constituents aren’t, you know, fools. They understand.”
Virginia Republican Randy Forbes spent more than seventy thousand dollars using the privilege. About $30,000 of that was for Facebook ads…railing against so-called “Obamacare,” questioning “Free taxpayer funded cell phones?” and on electronic polls – dozens of them …which he defends.
“It’s a way to let our constituents have a role and a voice in government, as opposed to just listening to pundits that are out there, telling us what they think.”
Forbes says he’s merely trying to communicate with his constituents on the different multi-media platforms that they tend to read. “And in today’s world they can’t always get to Washington, and sometimes you have to go where they are. But I don’t care whether they’re young people using social media, elderly people using print mail; or we have people across the globe using the Internet. We’re going to try to communicate with them in any way possible because it’s important I know how they feel so that I can represent them better.”
Melanie Sloan says it’s important for the nation’s elected officials to communicate with people who put them in office. But she says a lot of what’s considered franked mail nowadays – like those Facebook and Google ad buys – isn’t what the nation’s first Congress intended when it adopted the practice.
“I’m not sure that they have been updated to take into account the burgeoning variety of ways members can connect with their constituents…I think there are real questions about what is appropriate use of taxpayer dollars.”
Every representative is given a certain office budget based on their distance from Washington and the cost of real estate back home. The average is around $1.4 million. Non leaders are only allowed 18 staffers, but they can also have fewer and spend that money on franked mail.
Virginia Democratic Congressman Bobby Scott spent just over$6,000 of taxpayer funds to communicate with voters. “You have a certain budget and you can use it on things that are important."
Lawmakers aren’t allowed to use taxpayer funds for mailings within 90 days of an election, so lawmakers were cut off from using the privilege in August. But if Sloan’s right, the campaign season started long before August – or never really ended – giving incumbents a leg up in this year’s contests.