Brown fuzzy on funding

On Lisa Brown’s website she says she supports “electoral and campaign finance reform to end … dark money politics and bring about transparency…” That is hard to believe when you look at her campaign contributions on the Federal Election Commission website, www.fec.org. As of July 15, about one-third of her 6,000 donations have been funneled through a PAC called ActBlue, located in Massachusetts. These ActBlue donations equal $389,701.85, about 18 percent of the total amount.

There is no way for the average voter to tell which individuals, corporations, unions and PACs have made these contributions. It also appears to be a way to avoid contribution limits. Moreover, she says she is not taking corporate donations, but again, how can we tell? We know she took plenty of corporate donations for 20 years as a state legislator.

On Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers’ FEC page it is much clearer who is supporting her re-election. Our congresswoman values transparency and is not hiding which individuals, businesses and organizations support her. Unfortunately, we cannot say that for Ms. Brown. If Ms. Brown says one thing and does another on campaign finance transparency, can we trust her to do what she says on other issues?

Gretchen McDevitt

Spokane