Rabbi Michael Pollack: Pa. leaders must step up to fight foreign election interference
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Senate Republican leaders decided to end our two-year legislative session without passing HB 2433 and banning foreign influenced corporations from political spending in Pennsylvania elections, and our Pennsylvania state Senate has now gone home until the new year.
The editorial “Why would Pennsylvania elections need foreign money?” (Sept. 19, TribLive) asks a very good question in its title. Why, indeed, do we currently allow foreign entities to own large stakes in U.S. corporations and then use those corporations to pump unlimited amounts of money into our elections, often secretly through shadowy nonprofits and Super PACs? Who thinks this is a good idea? Who honestly believes that what Pennsylvania needs is more untraceable money fueling toxic ads, mailers and text messages pushing interests that are not the interests of the people of Pennsylvania? Our elections are supposed to be decided by the people of Pennsylvania and nobody else.
HB 2433 presented a giant opportunity for our state Senate to build some trust into our elections and truly fight for election integrity and against foreign election interference. It would have banned foreign influenced corporate cash from influencing our elections. It passed out of the full House in July with bipartisan support, and it is wildly popular. A poll released in July by Data for Progress found that 82% of likely voters agree that there should be limits on election spending by foreign-influenced corporations, and protecting our elections from foreign interference should have been a no-brainer for Senate leaders.
In September, MarchOnHarrisburg marched for three days and 35 miles from Lancaster to Harrisburg in support of this bill. Our march finished when we won a meeting in Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward’s office, where we talked about the specifics of the bill. Those talks continued for several weeks. We were also in discussions with Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman’s office and Senate State Government Committee Chair Cris Dush’s office. Disappointingly, no commitments were made by anyone, and the clock was run out.
We do not accept the tired excuse that there is never enough time to do the right thing, especially when our legislators use session days to win the favor of big-money interests. For example, in the last session week of September, our legislators passed 12 bills and held 49 campaign fundraisers.
Senate Republicans have the majority, and their leadership has the power to call a vote on this bill early next session. They failed to act in 2024, but they can do the right thing in the new year. With the power of the majority comes the responsibility of either doing the right thing or explaining to Pennsylvanians why they would give the wrong answer to this stunningly obvious question: “Why would Pennsylvania elections need foreign money?”
Pennsylvania has many problems with money influencing our elections and our elected officials. We have unlimited campaign contributions, unlimited gifts, and our full-time state legislators can legally work side jobs with obvious conflicts of interest. Pennsylvanians need to be able to trust our elections and our elected officials. That public trust is the bedrock and foundation of our commonwealth. Senate GOP Leaders Ward, Pittman and Dush need to take a stand and start repairing the wounded public trust.
Rabbi Michael Pollack is executive director of MarchOnHarrisburg.