It doesn’t surprise me. I’ve seen this kind of crony
capitalism before. It’s is the same good old boy politics-as-usual that I
fought and we defeated in my home state. I took on a corrupt and
compromised political class and their backroom dealings with Big Oil.
And I can tell you from experience that sudden and relentless reform
never sits well with entrenched interests and power-brokers. So, please
you must vet a candidate’s record. You must know their ability to
successfully reform and actually fix problems that they’re going to
claim that they inherited.

-Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin
September 3, 2011, Indianola, IA

If you’ve vetted a candidate’s voting record, the next step is to vet
financial records. “Forensic accounting” is a discipline unto itself,
and while the average voter cannot be expected to be the next Peter Schweizer, we can examine some basic records and apply common-sense. We are looking for:

• Expenses reasonable and customary vs. outlandish and extravagant.
• Irregularities that could suggest embezzling funds.
• Irregularities that could suggest cloaking sources of income.
• Understating income or expenses.
• Income from trade, industry or interest groups who benefit from legislation sponsored or voted on. This is a tell-tale sign of reg neg and possible crony capitalism.

To keep this simple, three websites are key to vetting financial records
to the level of a very well-informed voter if not a semi-professional
level.

Federal Election Commission Disclosures

The Federal Election Commission website houses income, disbursement
and other financial data pertaining to candidates, campaigns, 527
organizations and Political Action Committees. Palinistas who donate to
SarahPAC (listed as “Sarah PAC” – two words – Committee Number C00458588),
should be familiar with its filings. Just as investors should
understand that in which they invest, donors should understand that to
which they donate. For instance, Palinistas should know that SarahPAC
stumps for candidates who support its principles and that monies from
the PAC cannot legally be used for purposes outside SarahPAC’s purview,
such as a campaign for any office by Gov. Palin. A campaign would have
to be done with separate monies.

Like all government sites, the FEC site has a bit of a learning curve,
before you are able to find the desired information. If you are
comfortable navigating the FEC site, reading and understanding
SarahPAC’s filings, you are ready move on to other candidates and
committees to apply what you’ve learned from reviewing SarahPAC’s
filings.

FEC Website

Open Secrets

Open Secrets is operated by
the Center for Responsive Politics and is an excellent way to vet
financial information pertinent to federal candidates and committees.
Being privately owned and operated, it is somewhat easier to navigate
than the FEC site. I used it almost three years ago for a campaign
financing study and it is a goldmine of valuable information.
Considering that I had only been supporting Gov. Palin all of six months
at the time and was a complete newbie to elective politics, the site is
easy to use.

Open Secrets

Follow The Money

Follow the Money is used for vetting financial records of state candidates. Like Open Secrets,
Follow the Money is a
non-partisan organization. The website has several tools that help you
see who is lobbying to include well-heeled individuals. Tools of
particular interest include:

• Independent Spending – track independent spending on elections.
• Industry Influence – see how different industries influence candidates and legislative action.
• Legislative Committee Analysis Tool (L-CAT)
  – “illustrates the intersection of campaign money with the laws that
  affect everyday life.” If you’re seeking evidence of crony capitalism,
  L-CAT will most likely find it.
• Lobbyist Link – see what lobbyist’s employers gave to candidates.
• Point of Influence – shows if a campaign gets most of its funding in-state or from out-of-state sources.
• Top 10,000 Donors – top 10,000 donors to federal and state campaigns.

Follow the Money

The Final Installment

We’ll discuss using the clock as a vetting tool in our final installment of this candidate vetting series.

(No Ratings Yet)

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About Ron Devito

Ron Devito is a LAN infrastructure
engineer/project manager for Con Edison of New York. He manages CAT-5e and
fiber optic cable installation projects; designs and builds LAN rooms; and
works with battery backups (UPS), automatic transfer switches, and environmental
monitoring equipment.He owns
and operates North Star Promotions, which sells a complete
line of Palin Power products he designed and test-marketed in
Rochester, NY at Governor Palin’s book signing event. He also owns and
operates The North Star Group Amazon
store selling Going Rogue, and numerous products that
Governor Palin has referenced or is known to use, as well as products related
to her.Mr. Devito is an instrument-rated
private pilot and uses Microsoft’s FSX and X-Plane 9.0 to stay
proficient. He is also a recreational saltwater fisherman. Mr. Devito is
married without children and lives in Staten Island, NY. He has an MBA from
University of Phoenix, and a Bachelor in Journalism from St. John’s
University.Mr. Devito analyzes Governor
Palin’s accomplishments from the perspectives of an MBA, Transformational
Leadership, Feminism, and through the lens of Reagan Conservatism.He edits
and publishes US for Palin, and is an author
on Modern Conservative and SarahNET.

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