ANOTHER VIEWPOINT: Campaign finance fixes must boost transparency

<p>Indiana state Sen. Brent Waltz’s 2016 bid for the 9th District congressional seat looked like a long shot to most observers. Former Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller was a candidate in the five-person Republican primary, along with state Sen. Erin Houchin and Trey Hollingsworth, who had recently moved to the southern Indiana district with much family money to spend on his campaign.</p><p>But an Indiana lawmaker-turned-casino executive apparently thought Waltz was a good bet. A federal indictment alleges former state Sen. John Keeler worked with Waltz to set up a straw donor operation, transferring $40,000 from New Centaur LLC, which owned and operated Indiana casinos and horse tracks, to the former Greenwood lawmaker’s campaign.</p><p>A month before Election Day, the federal charges are a timely reminder of the ever-present risk of corruption posed by campaign cash. Wrongdoing might have been caught in this example, but recurring cases of campaign finance violations suggest stricter regulation is needed.</p><p>The Waltz/Keeler indictments aren’t the only Indiana campaign finance scandals with a gambling tie. In August, Democrat Joe Stahura, the five-term mayor of Whiting, added to northwest Indiana’s tarnished political reputation when federal prosecutors announced felony charges against him and his wife. Stahura resigned and entered a guilty plea last month, admitting he used $255,000 in campaign funds for gambling and other personal uses. Some of the money covered debts at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond; the Horseshoe Casino in Council Bluffs, Iowa; and Blue Sky Casino in French Lick.</p><p>At the state level, Indiana law allows unlimited contributions from an individual while requiring candidates to disclose who gives them money. But Indiana law is murkier on how those campaign contributions can be used, noted Andrew Downs, director of the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics at Purdue University Fort Wayne.</p><p>“You can spend money in a way that you think benefits your campaign, and that is incredibly gray,” he said. “At the federal level, it takes an incredible amount of money to run a competitive race. Because of the limits that federal donors have, I think people go looking for ways to get around it.”</p><p>While indictments were handed down in the 9th District and Whiting situations, they reveal the need for stronger campaign finance law, Downs noted. He cited Indiana reporting deadlines allowing a candidate a window to accept contributions that won’t be revealed until after the election. It made sense before electronic contribution reporting; not now.</p><p>“If I, as a voter, should be able to make decisions based in part on how a campaign spends its money and where it got the money, I should be able to know that before the election,” he said.</p><p>Stronger campaign finance laws, however, have to come from those who are expected to follow them. Cases such as the ones that just came to light should signal a need, but it’s too easy for lawmakers to dismiss them as isolated incidents. What they must understand is the integrity of their offices and trust in government is damaged with every campaign finance scandal.</p><p>Send comments to <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>.</p>