2nd District embroiled in controversy and innuendo over “reform”

On Tuesday morning I laughed.

After publishing Monday our podcast with Ken Cuccinelli and Rob Wittman, and posting our exclusive guest post of RNC Chairman Michael Steele, I didn’t pay much attention to the flood that was in my e-mail inbox until Tuesday morning.

When I looked, I found that I had five congressional press releases, an RNC and RPV press release, numerous special interest group press releases, and a press release from just about every congressional candidate I follow on one subject: why national healthcare reform needs to be repealed or changed.

Except for one.

Ben Loyola and Scott Taylor released jointly their “Contract on Congress”, which, when I saw the release, I first thought of the Godfather, so I laughed.

But I was also intrigued.

Of all the things to talk about on March 22, instead of following the pack, these two candidates were saying, “to hell with Congress as is, we’re going to reform it.”

Despite my cynicism over the title and a couple of their headings, it was a pretty good statement of tried-and-true Republican principles, save for a couple of interesting twists. In essence, it was a statement that all Congressional candidates could and should get behind.

So, I published the principles of the release in its entirety.

But what what I have since learned over the course of two days and multiple sources is that this release is not as it seems.

It is in all probability not an original work by Taylor and Loyola, but a copy of work already done by Rigell.

According to multiple sources, the Taylor and Loyola campaigns knew that Scott Rigell had been diligently planning his own platform, complete with nineteen other congressional candidates from across the country, to demonstrate the “reform” effort.

Apparently a wayward email from one of these congressional campaigns made it into the hands of Scott Taylor and Ben Loyola.

Therefore, in an effort to head off Rigell before he gained traction with these proposals, Taylor and Loyola chose to take the information and make it their own.

They also knew, based on the emails from outside , that Rigell intended to join with his colleagues on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on March 23 to announce these principles, so they calculated their release to be on March 22.

If you examine the Rigell original and the Loyola/Taylor release, you’ll find striking similarities. In fact, they’re virtual duplicates, save for some minor changes in wording and numbers.

The question now becomes one of timing. Who copied who?

Are my anonymous sources reliable enough?

Well, in talking with both the Rigell and Loyola campaigns, I asked Loyola campaign manager Josh Clark to produce documentation of the research and work product that went into coordinating their joint nine step plan. He could not.

I have not contacted the Taylor campaign, so perhaps they still can come up with the hard work they did to develop the reform document.

However, definitively, Jason Miyares of the Rigell campaign showed me emails regarding what they call their “Big Idea” campaign. He showed me appointment schedules of the candidate coordinating with the other congressional candidates to talk about the “Big Idea”. He has a conference call summary of candidates from across the country to discuss the “Big Idea.” He has an email from Bill Christian of the Todd Young for Congress Campaign which details the release of this “Big Idea” on March 23 and the logistics associated with it. He produced a script that Rigell used to discuss the reforms with other candidates, complete with the names of those candidates contacted. And, most importantly, he produced the document showing the reforms.

Regardless of timing or coordination, the reforms are the most important thing to look at:

Rigell, reform 1: “No Campaigning at Taxpayers’ Expense: Only two direct mail pieces will be sent each year, and no closer than 3 months prior to an election, standardized in form and content, one page only, using recycled paper and black and white ink.”
Taylor/Loyola, reform 1: “No Taxpayer Propaganda Act: In this age of free, electronic communications, television, radio, telephone and texting, the most outdated expense of Congress is the Frank, where taxpayers get expensive, multi-color mailpieces from politicians and taxpayers pay for every last one of them.”

Rigell, reform 2: “Eliminate Congressional Retirement ‘Perks’/Congressional Pension Reform Act: Reduce the incentive to stay in Congress by replacing the congressional retirement system in its entirety with a modest 403(b) match program similar to what is commonly offered by American employers. Benefits earned by current members of congress and retirees would be honored.”
Taylor/Loyola, reform 2: “End Congressional Pensions: It’s completely unfair to tax citizens who don’t have wealthy pension plans to pay their Members of Congress to have them. Representatives serve by the will of the people, and rich retirement benefits defeats the purpose of a citizen legislature as designed by the Founders…. Members of Congress must live under the same types of retirement plans like 401(k)/403(b) that are regularly found in the private sector.”

Rigell, reform 3: “Understand and Follow the Constitution/Constitutional Authority Act: Require that any bill presented for consideration include in its first article the constitutional reference and rationale that would make the bill, if passed, constitutional.”
Taylor/Loyola, reform 3: “Constitutional Supremacy: America is the only country where power exists with the people, and through the Constitution the people loan this power to government to accomplish certain tasks. Too often bills pass in Congress with no basis in any reading of the Constitution. Any initiative in Washington should plainly show its Constitutional basis and justification.”

Rigell, reform 4: “Term Limits Initiative: Pledge to serve no more than 18 years in Congress. Pledge to lead a movement to lawfully amend our United States Constitution to create term limits for members of Congress.”
Taylor/Loyola, reform 4: “The Dozen before Dirty: Incumbents rarely lose. Incumbents who serve more than six years almost never lose. Committees are controlled by incumbents in districts where they will never be replaced in an election. It breeds corruption….A dozen years is enough for any representative. No Member of Congress should serve more than 12 years….Pledge to propose a Constitutional Amendment to limit terms to 12 years and personally pledge not to serve more than 12 years.

Rigell, reform 5: “Stop the Pork – Stop the Earmarks: Prohibit the introduction of all non-defense, non-national security related earmarks into any piece of federal legislation. Earmarks will only be allowed for defense-related funding and only when specifically identified and requested by the Department of Defense or Department of Homeland Security.”
Taylor/Loyola, reform 5: “A Pork-Free Diet: In these days of trillions of dollars of extreme debt and budget deficits that are routinely ignored by Congress, the earmark process must be reformed. Defense-related spending has a firm Constitutional basis, but earmarks for special projects that are beyond the purview of government that are simply used for political patronage and to “bring home bacon” for a district must end….Pledge to introduce no earmarks and work for a ban on non-defense earmarks”

Rigell, reform 6: “Budget Accountability/No Appropriation-No Pay Act: Require that each day that a budget is not passed on time by the United States Congress, members will have their income reduced to zero until such legislation passes its respective chambers. Thus, if a require appropriate bill is ten days overdue in its approval, the members will work effectively ten days without pay until it is passed.”
Taylor/Loyola, reform 6: “No Pay for Overtime: When was the last time Congress passed a budget on time? We don’t know either. Instead, they pass “continuing resolutions” and “supplemental appropriations” that reward their inaction and usually get loaded up with perks and special interest favors….Members of Congress should reimburse the Treasury for every working day the budget is not passed on time….Sponsor reforms where Members of Congress must reduce their salary for each day the budget is not passed on time.”

Rigell, reform 7: “Congressional Accountability / Congressional Deficit Accountability Act: For every fiscal year that Congress fails to pass a balanced budget, Members will take a 20% reduction in salary (2010 is equal to $174,000 or roughly a $35,000 pay cut). A variation of this legislation is to allow members to voluntarily choose the salary reduction until the budget is balanced.”
Taylor/Loyola, reform 7: “End Deficit Spending: The federal government has been operating on deficit spending for decades, except for the few years during the Republican Revolution in the 90s. Today’s deficits are unconscionable. Government can live within its means. It just doesn’t want to….We’ve got to stop excusing this deficit spending. No quarter should be asked or given. And Members of Congress should forfeit a quarter of their salary each year the budget is not in balance….Pledge to propose a Constitutional Amendment to require a balanced federal budget.

Rigell, reform 8: “Congressional Health Care Accountability: Any health care legislation, specifically any legislation which includes a “public option” shall force members of Congress to enroll in that public option and forgo any participation in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP). Thus, members of Congress will lose their current health care benefits and instead participate in the same health care ”reform” forced upon the American people.”
Taylor/Loyola, reform 8: “Public Option for Public Servants: The worst kind of representation is the kind that forces citizens into systems that legislators would never accept. Any health care “public option” plan should require that each elected official be made to take the same option that they are prescribing for the people they represent….Require Members of Congress to forgo participation in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program if Congress passes a “public option” health care plan. They will have to enroll in the same public option they force upon citizens.

Rigell, reform 9: “Read the Bills: Each bill, and every amendment, must be read in its entirety before a quorum in both the House and the Senate. Every member of the House and Senate must sign a sworn affidavit, under penalty of perjury, that he or she has attentively either personally read, or heard read, the complete bill to be voted on. Every law coming up for renewal under the sunset provisions must also be read according to the same rules that apply to new bills. Every bill to be voted on must be published on the Internet at least 7 days before a vote, and Congress must give public notice of the date when a vote will be held on that bill. Passage of a bill that does not abide by these provisions will render the measure null and void, and establish grounds for the law to be challenged in court.
Taylor/Loyola, reform 9: ““Read Before You Vote: You can’t effectively represent the voters who sent you to Washington to vote on legislation when you haven’t read it, but Congress does it all the time. Bills that are thousands of pages and amendments with pages in the hundreds can’t possibly be read before it’s time to vote…Motions to waive reading of legislation pass with consistent success and Members of Congress pass omnibus bills and don’t have a clue what’s in them…That’s wrong…Each bill should be read aloud before a quorum of each chamber, the House of Representatives and the Senate, and each member should swear that they’ve read each bill they vote on. Each bill should be online in sufficient time for interested Americans to read as well…Pledge to read every bill they vote on and will listen to constituents who have comments, concerns and suggestions about legislation.

So, now that you have had the chance to read the nine proposals, displayed in the same sequence as each campaign wrote it, what conclusion do you reach?

Plausible deniability of outright plagiarism? Sure.

Ideas that can be found and have been proposed elsewhere? Absolutely.

But a coincidence where each candidate sequences each policy in the same order and nearly the exact same wording? Don’t think so.

Someone copied someone. And the Rigell campaign is howling “foul!”.

So, where does that leave us?

Well, there’s certainly more to the story, I’m presuming. And there are generally two sides to every coin.

As this is a blog, and transparency is king, who’s going to have the integrity to come forward and explain this?

I do think this bears repeating from earlier – these are fantastic reforms. I hope the candidate who is nominated can implement them.

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