Okay, so this is mean. I’m
not doing this for any other reason than to be mean. I ain’t gonna lie about
it. I have a mean reputation to protect and this is just something else I’m
doing that’s pure-dee mean.
This county is controlled by
Republicans. For 10 years I have begged, pleaded, attempted to extort, bribe,
hollered, cried, whined and stomped to get the controlling Republicans to do
one simple thing: put the campaign finance reports online so that everybody
can see who is buying our politicians.
Travis County, which is controlled by Democrats, proudly does it.
But our Republicans are
ashamed of who they are taking campaign money from. To see the reports, you
have to go to the county elections office in Rosenberg during regular business
hours (that means while you’re working to pay your taxes) to see who is buying
your county commissioners, judges, and assorted constables. That’s a shame
because most folks can’t go. You can also “buy” copies of these reports at 10
cents a page, take off work early and pick them up so you could look at them
at home. Buying all the elected officials in the county would cost you close
to $100.
For the past 12 years, I have
bought the county commissioner and sheriff’s contributions and put them
online. I didn’t have a fancy scanner or massive bandwidth like county
government does, so it costs me out of my pocket to do this. I don’t mind.
It’s my contribution to better government. I’m not doing it because I’m nice,
mind you, because I am not nice. I’m mean.
I’d like to quit having to do
this --- especially when we get close to election and they have to file
reports every couple of weeks.
I think county government
ought to be open to the people. I think you have a right to know who owns
your politicians. I also think you have a right to see what they’re spending
their campaign funds on. It’s tax-free money and you’d be shocked at what
they buy with it. Or, maybe you wouldn’t after seeing Tom DeLay’s.
Now we come to the mean
part. The Republicans control this county. If anything is going to be done
to get these reports online, Republicans will have to do it. So, just to be
mean as ten acres of snakes, I am only going to post Republican campaign
finance reports.
I mean it.
I figure that they’ll get all
worked-up over it and finally do something about it. If the controlling
Republicans want people to see the Democrats’ reports, they can post all the
reports on the county website, just like other counties do.
