Article 8 of the Vermont Constitution states “that all elections ought to be free and without corruption, and that all voters having a sufficient, evident, common interest with, and attachment to the community, have a right to elect officers, and be elected into office.”
In 1997 Vermont started tinkering with its campaign laws by allowing public financing of certain campaigns and placing strict limits on how much those seeking office could receive, whom they could receive it from and how much they could spend. The US Supreme Court quickly shot down the scheme of financing limits, however, public financing remains on the books.
But in recent weeks, we’ve witnessed a heretofore-unprecedented amount of finger pointing between Vermont’s party triumvirate. First, Democratic Attorney General Sorrell charged former Progressive Lt. Gubernatorial Candidate Dean Corren with violating the public financing laws. The AG claims his hands were tied, despite the well established practice of prosecutorial discretion.
Then, Mr. Corren’s attorney filed a countersuit in Federal court asking that parts of Vermont’s law providing for public financing be declared unconstitutional. Long time political observers will remember with irony that it was Mr. Corren and his Progressive allies that pushed hard for the original enactment of public financing.
This catalyzed the press to examine the Attorney General’s own record of campaign finance reporting, to see if Vermont’s top law enforcement official had himself violated the law. The vast majority of the facts turned up in this effort have been in the public record for many months, but the timing was right to join the Party party.
The Republican leadership jumped into the fray next, amplifying the allegations that the Attorney General had committed his own campaign financing violations and asking for an independent counsel to be appointed to investigate the investigators. The Attorney General first insisted no investigation was necessary but soon reversed his position and asked that an independent investigation be initiated.
All this leads me to wonder about the impact this prolonged melee will have on any future plans by the electorate to seek underpaid, often-thankless political positions, where it’s already a daily occurrence to magnify microscopic minutiae.
And it reminds me of the song “Lawyers, Guns and Money” by the late Warren Zevon, in which he crooned “I’m the innocent bystander, Somehow I got stuck, Between the rock and the hard place, And I’m down on my luck. ”
In our quest to “purify” the election process, I hope we don’t close the doors on all those willing to seek elected office.
