Imagine that you’re a congressman.
A close political ally — a same-party congressman who is on a highly-influential committee with you — has just confessed to accepting bribes from a government contractor and voting accordingly; he’s just stepped down, and is facing prison time. That same contractor happens to be your biggest contributor, and your votes mirror those of your fellow congressman. The folks in your district are starting to perk their ears up, and the local media has begun to investigate whether you’re just as guilty as your friends.
The thing is that you didn’t do it. Yeah, you took the contributions, but nothing under the table, no inappropriate gifts, no shenanigans. Everything is legal. The contributions didn’t change your votes one bit.
What do you do?
(Inspired by the campaign crisis management exercise at the November Sorensen session.)
geez, that’s a no brainer..no comment
Give the money to charity and make a speech about how you are horrified about the bribes and want to separate yourself from such a tainted contributor.
And hope that they buy it.
I should say that I don’t mean this as any sort of a backhanded indictment of Rep. Goode. I’m hoping for some real thought as to what a congressman in this situation should do. Because I’m really not sure. I’ve got a few vague notions, but I’m really more interested in hearing what others think.
Move to Mexico.
Rovian strategiem: Attack the media. Call them liberal. Dismiss any connection as the ravings of Michael Moore-like Democrats.
For those with a soul: Give contributions back/to charity. Define and defend vigoriously your votes for the issue (if you can). Shore up good will by backing a feel good bill – change the subject of debate. If all else fails, hire a good lawyer. Actually, probably a team of good lawyer. And a PR director (if you want to stay in politics for more than a year). Maybe even write a book.
repeat “no comment” until I can hire Waldo to run my re-election campaign.
Step # 1. I’d immediately send my personal tax returns for the last 10 years to conservative and liberal bloggers. Wait 24 hours before sending them with a press release to major media outlets. If seperate returns were filed, I’d send my wife’s tax returns as well.
Step # 2. Simultaneously, return every penny of the contributions (assuming that there’s money in the war chest to do it) to the contractor along with a personal, furious, accusatory letter condemning that contributor for their illegal activity and betrayal of the values that I thought we shared. I’d be sure to use the ‘F’ word in there.
Step #3. – Quickly leak a copy of the letter.
Step #4 – Insist that this letter was private corrospondance between myself and the crooked contractor, firmly requesting that bloggers and other media outlets stop reporting on it. A request which they obviously will not comply with, since the story of a Congressman flying off the handle and calling a crooked defense contractor a ‘common fucking criminal’ would be way too juicy to ignore.
Step #5 – Start busting my ass to raise more donations to cover the cost of returning tens of thousands of dollars all at once.
I’m pretty sure that this would get you out of the woods.
“Give the money to charity…”
Would that be legal? To take political contributions and donate them to charity, I mean.
Would that be legal?
It would.
It’s commonly done by campaigns that have accepted money under questionable circumstances. The example that best comes to mind — because I once worked on a campaign where this happened — is when a campaign passes the hat at an event to raise money, and collects hundreds or thousands of dollars. Without knowledge of who gave how much, contributions of $100.01 and more could have been received but not reported to the SBE. The solution? Give it all away to a charity.
I gotta go with return the money or donate it to charity.
What do you do?
Nothing. As the scenario points out, the Congressman has done nothing wrong. Keep doing the job the voters sent you to do, and know that the press will finally vindicate you, once enough time has passed with zero evidence of wrongdoing, despite witch hunts and endless inuendo.
Well, then I guess a clarifying comment is in order: What do you do if you want to retain your seat?
Mr. anonymous congressman:
“I am disappointed in what has been revealed about Duke, my fellow Congressman. We have a hard job to do here (Bushies like that hard work thing) and when one of us, entrusted with this job of representing the people, uses the opportunity to enrich themselves, well it just impacts us all and brings out suspicion on all of us. I take this job seriously and am disturbed when someone I trusted taints all of us with his weakness and misdeeds. Campaign fundraising is a real necessity but it must never hold influence over any of us. Duke did the right thing by stepping down.”
And the answer would appear to be Donate the money and issue a press release to let everyone know that’s what you’ve done, otherwise known as C.Y.A (covering your …). From an AP story today a handful of Republicans are returning the Cunningham money, or donating it to charities in their district.
The Congressman should take all of the MZM-related money and divide it into thirds. He should then write a check for one-third of the amount to Al Weed’s campaign and another check for another third to Bern Ewert’s campaign. Letters accompany each check telling his opponents that he’ll deal with his remaining third of the ill-gotten gains in the same way that they deal with theirs.
Watch the fun begin.
Use the MZM money to help displaced workers who attend a Southside community college.