Democrats: Limit staff work for campaigns
mbutts@idahopress.com
Friday, September 12th, 2008
TREASURE VALLEY — Three Idaho Democrats running for U.S. congressional seats say they would limit the amount of time their staff members could work on their campaigns.
They said they want to keep a clear division between tax-supported staff work and campaign work.
Although spokespeople for Rep. Bill Sali, Rep. Mike Simpson and Sen. Mike Crapo all work on their bosses’ campaigns on a volunteer basis, they say they are careful to distinguish the two duties, as is required by House and Senate rules.
From the House Ethics Manual
“(A) Member may not adjust the work requirements of the congressional office, or add unpaid interns during the campaign, in order to create more ‘free’ time for staff to do campaign work. To help ensure compliance with the rules, office policies on employee leave and other free time should be in writing and distributed to all employees.
“Employees who do campaign work while remaining on the House payroll should keep careful records of the time they spend on official activities and, separately, on campaign activities, and demonstrate that campaign work was not done on official time. There is no set format for maintaining such time records.”
Sali, Simpson staff supply records
Rep. Mike Simpson spokeswoman Nikki Watts and Rep. Bill Sali spokesman Wayne Hoffman both do volunteer work on their bosses’ campaigns. And, as required by the House Ethics Manual, they keep records to show it does not interfere with their staff duties.
Watts and Hoffman supplied records to the Press-Tribune of the time they have spent on this year’s campaigns.
Watts said she uses leave time from her staff job to do campaign work. Hoffman said he works some on Sali’s campaign during regular working hours, but it doesn’t interfere with his staff duties. His records show most of the periods of time he worked on the campaign are 30 minutes or less.
“I don’t do a lot on a daily basis ... on the campaign,” Hoffman said.
Statements from officials, candidates
Here are Idaho’s congressional delegation and challengers’ statements regarding staff members working on campaigns:
• Rep. Bill Sali, Rep. Mike Simpson and Sen. Mike Crapo all allow staff members to work on their campaigns as long as regulations are followed.
• District 1 Democratic candidate Walt Minnick (via e-mail from campaign spokesman John Foster): “... Walt’s Congressional staff will not be allowed to do campaign work unless it is on their own time, during the lunch hour or after work hours. And after July 1, 2010, any congressional employee doing campaign work on Walt’s behalf will be required to take an unpaid leave of absence from their congressional duties until after Election Day.”
• District 2 Democratic candidate Debbie Holmes (via e-mail): “I understand why congressional staffers are interested in supporting their congressmen and women for re-election. But having the same people do both jobs decreases their ability to serve the people of their district. I would not have staff members in paid positions serving in both my government office and my political campaign; the people of Idaho should not be paying my campaign staff out of pocket just because I’m the incumbent. I would only allow my staff to play any role in my campaign during the primary, and then only outside of normal hours.”
• U.S. Senate Republican candidate Lt. Gov. Jim Risch: Risch’s campaign director Matt Ellsworth said federal law prohibited Risch from answering questions about whom he would hire or how he would structure his staff if elected. “You can’t even hint about that,” Ellsworth said. Risch’s Senate campaign staff is separate from his lieutenant governor staff.
• U.S. Senate Democratic candidate Larry LaRocco: LaRocco’s campaign says he will not allow any of his congressional staff to do any work on his campaigns unless they resign from his staff.
• U.S. Senate independent candidate Rex Rammell: “I would try to keep it separate myself. I don’t think taxpayer money should be used to run a campaign.”
• U.S. Senate independent candidate Pro-Life said he would not care if staff workers did some work on his campaign. “If you can go out of your way just a few minutes to serve someone the right way and it happens to be on the campaign, then go ahead and do that,” Pro-Life said.
• U.S. Senate Libertarian candidate Kent Marmon said he had not given the issue much thought. But he did say having a congressional staff that is available for campaign work gives the incumbent an advantage.
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But Democratic candidates Walt Minnick, Debbie Holmes and Larry LaRocco said they would either not allow staff to work on campaigns at all or limit their campaign work to early in an election year. Independent Rex Rammell, running for U.S. Senate, said he would try to keep campaign and staff duties separate.
Minnick and Holmes are running against Sali and Simpson, respectively, in Congressional Districts 1 and 2. LaRocco is running against Republican Jim Risch and Rammell for Larry Craig’s U.S. Senate seat. Craig is not running. A Letha independent who changed his name to Pro-Life and Caldwell Libertarian Kent Marmon are also running for Craig’s Senate seat.
“He’s absolutely opposed to it,” LaRocco campaign communications director Dean Ferguson said about staff members working on campaigns. “He wouldn’t do that and he has a record of not doing that to the extreme.”
When LaRocco served as an Idaho Congressman in the 1990s, Ferguson said, members of his congressional staff who wanted to work on the campaign had to resign from his congressional staff to do so.
Crapo communications director Susan Wheeler said walking the line between regular staff duties and campaign work can be “challenging.” She said sometimes it serves reporters better if she responds to questions that may be campaign-related because she can do so faster than campaign workers can. She also said some questions from reporters are both policy and campaign questions, so it’s not always easy to distinguish between the two.
Crapo’s staff office policy follows Senate rules that forbid staff members from working on campaigns unless it’s on their own time and does not interfere with official staff duties, Wheeler said. She said she does not know of Senate rules that require staff members working on campaigns to keep records of their work.
