Paul DeMarco: Public officials using taxpayer dollars for electioneering should be prohibited

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Image source: Parsons, Lee & Juliano, P.C.

Candidates are working hard in Alabama as we approach the upcoming election to connect with voters, whether by pressing the flesh at the local meat and three or attending their hometown high school football game. 

Getting their message out to voters requires raising money to pay for television, radio, mail, and billboards.

Without raising campaign funds, it is hard for those running for office to attain name ID, particularly for challengers against incumbents. And in Alabama, it is even harder, as some elected officials use government dollars to pay for advertisements to splash their faces for potential voters to see. These advertisements are displayed under the contention that they are promoting or informing the public about their office.

It is not right nor fair for taxpayers’ money to be used by officeholders to prop themselves up just as their names are going to be on the ballot. Time and time again, we see officials buy “advertisements” that prominently display the official’s name and face to raise their name identification, especially close to election time. There have been photos plastered on billboards, newspapers, at gas pumps, in the produce aisle, and on television commercials. And all of these were purchased at the expense of monies that should have been used to administer their office responsibilities and not for their own self-promotion. Too many officials spend their days in office focused on working for re-election as opposed to doing the job they were sent to do.

During the next legislative session, Alabama lawmakers must change the law to prohibit those who serve in office from using public funds to campaign and self-promote. A bill that would bar such expenditures six months from an election cycle should be the bare minimum requirement. We hear officials complain they need more money to fund their offices but then turn around and expend it to publicize themselves. State representatives and senators will return to Montgomery next Spring, and they should add this to the list of bills to work to earn the trust of state citizens.

Alabama taxpayers deserve no less.

Paul DeMarco is a former member of the Alabama House of Representatives and can be found on Twitter at @Paul_DeMarco.