LegiStorm: Transparency's Sidekick

Most personal financial disclosures by members of Congress won't be released to the public until next month, but some interesting disclosures have already trickled out so far.

Take Norm Coleman. The Republican from Minnesota refuses to concede to challenger Al Franken in his apparent Senate re-election defeat, but his financial disclosure is a concession of sorts. Instead of filing an annual disclosure typical of any member of Congress staying in office, in April he filed a termination report along with all other departing members.

One of the latest filings released was for Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who filed his termination report with the Senate this month. As the Associated Press reported today,  Stevens disclosed a debt of between $1 million and $5 million in legal fees to Williams and Connolly LLP, the firm that represented Stevens in his corruption case regarding past omissions on disclosure forms. A jury found Stevens guilty last fall before Stevens was defeated in his reelection campaign, but the case was dismissed in April after a judge found prosecutors withheld evidence from the defense.

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Illinois governor and former Rep. Rod Blagojevich (D) was arrested Tuesday morning on corruption charges, including the accusation he essentially put up the open Senate seat formerly held by Barack Obama for the highest bidder.

Even before the arrest, Blagojevich has been under fire. A Chicago Tribune poll in October put his approval rating at 13 percent, and in another poll only 4 percent of respondents said he was doing a "good" job. Those numbers may have made him the most unpopular politician in the country. The latest revelations could make the situation even worse.

Because of the enormous interest in Blagojevich's financial dealings, LegiStorm has added Blagojevich's available state financial disclosures he filed as the governor of Illinois. Blagovich's financial disclosures as a member of Congress are not available as the House only keeps the disclosures on file for six years. Blagovich left his office to run for governor in 2002.

The Washington game of musical chairs has begun in earnest as current and former congressional aides angle for new positions. Last week's election has created plenty of opportunity for staffers. Former aides Daniel Maffei, Betsy Markey and Eric Paulsen were actually chosen by voters to return as members of Congress.

One congressional aide has already been named to the new presidential administration. Phil Schiliro, a long-time Hill hand who was chief of staff for Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), has been selected the head of President-elect Barack Obama's legislative affairs office during the transition, and is expected to be Obama's legislative affairs director when the new administration takes office in January. Obama will likely take a large cohort of his Senate staff with him, as well. His own chief of staff, Pete Rouse, is co-chairing the transition team and is expected to serve as a deputy chief of staff in the White House.

Jim Messina, a former chief of staff to Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), joined the Obama campaign earlier this year and is the personnel director for the transition team. Robert Gibbs served as Obama's Senate communications director before moving to the same role in the campaign and will likely be the next White House press secretary.

As the adminstration takes shape over the coming weeks, expect many other top congressional aides to move up Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House.

Over the last few days, a tempest has been brewing over an allegation made by Scripps Howard columnist Deroy Murdock that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) pays less to women than he does to men in his Senate office. All the stories have accurately cited LegiStorm as the source for the raw data.

Naturally, the allegation has lit up the conservative blogosphere and made its way onto television, including ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos".

But along the way, a few commentators have taken liberty with the facts about LegiStorm's role so we wanted to clear that up. We carry the data and are happy to be the source for anyone, liberal or conservative, who wants to do analysis of that data. That's what it's there for - to provide openess in government and spark debate. 

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The Obama campaign today released vice-presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden's tax returns for the past 10 years, and LegiStorm has them available here.

The two presidential candidates, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), released their own tax returns during the primary campaign, which can be seen here and here.

Although LegiStorm remains focused on matters related to Capitol Hill rather than the White House, we have included these tax returns to provide additional information to the Personal Financial Disclosures we already have for these candidates in their capacity as U.S. Senators.

Because of the public interest regarding the presidential candidates, we have also included more historical financial disclosure data for both the candidates and their staff.

We have added a small new feature to our site, which is the tax returns of the three main presidential candidates. While our mission has not expanded to cover the presidential race, we have their data because they are all U.S. senators. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has yet to release his tax filings, although he is expected to do so today. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) has not released her tax filing due in 2008 because she filed an extension. Instead, she released a statement with her expected income amounts from various sources.

You can find their tax forms on their personal financial disclosure pages, http://www.legistorm.com/memberdisclosure/76/Sen_Barack_Obama.html and http://www.legistorm.com/memberdisclosure/21/Sen_Hillary_Rodham_Clinton.html.

McCain's filings will be at http://www.legistorm.com/memberdisclosure/69/Sen_John_McCain.html when they become available.

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