Talk about bad timing.
Republicans in the Pennsylvania Senate passed a new lobbying disclosure bill Tuesday, just a week after revelations that one of the state’s U.S. congressional representatives —fellow party member Curt Weldon of the 7th district, outside Philadelphia — is under investigation for influence-peddling.
The FBI is looking into whether Weldon, a 10-term incumbent and vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, used his influence improperly to help foreign defense and energy firms. The firms were clients of a lobbying firm run by Weldon’s daughter, Karen Weldon, whose home and office were two of the six locations searched by investigators on Oct 16.
Though questions about Weldon were originally raised more than two years ago, the ethics lapses of other Congress members have raised the heat this season on any controversy involving lobbyists. Weldon was already in a tight race against Democrat Joe Sestak and the raids laid bare the investigation only three weeks before the election. Now the soon-to-be state law will help keep the issue of lobbying influence front and center as state lawmakers tout their good works before the election.
Recent polls posted on Pollster.com, including one by RTStrategies, have Weldon trailing Sestak. A Weldon spokesman referred The Examiner to a statement issued Oct. 18 in which Weldon pointed out that the House Ethics Committee had not found any wrongdoing when it looked into the matter in 2004.
Though there have also been ethics questions raised in the last two weeks about a key Democrat, Minority Leader Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, news reports that he made $1.1 million on a complicated land deal have not resonated as much — possibly because Reid is not up for re-election until 2010. Should the Senate change hands, it is at least conceivable that the land issue could come up in the conversation over leadership positions. Reid he has said he will refile disclosure reports.
Meanwhile, a poll by the Pew Research Center for People and the Press may contain a intriguing clue to what is really driving an electorate that hates Congress but still likes their own representative.
Pew reports this month that a majority of voters, for the first time since they started asking the question in 1998, will vote based on which party controls Congress. Some 57 percent of the 1,500 registered voters queried said they would factor in party control — a number that has been consistent all year and higher by 10 points than any other year before.
The poll, which has a margin of eror of plus or minus 3 percent, could indicate further polarization of the electorate. But it could also signal a shift toward divided government — a desire for the balance, oversight and compromise necessary when parties share control of the Congress and White House. If voters are truly tired of the polarization of the last decade, it will change everything — not just Congress.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Dee Ann Divis is the business editor of The Washington Examiner. Contact her at [email protected]
