My Point of View, By Ebenezer Howe III

Political action committees — PACs. Single-issue PACs — why they are bad or worse if you think PACs are bad already. Since the invention of PACs, I have been sucked into giving money to three single-issue PACs, and it always ended with me being upset — maybe more upset with myself than the PAC itself. My first and introductory experience was with a PAC created by Unisys, the company I used to work for. Unisys was formed by a hostile takeover of Sperry by Burroughs. Red flags should have gone up when Chairman and CEO W. Michael Blumenthal moved the world headquarters from Detroit to Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, according to some sources because he wanted to be closer to where the action was in Washington, D.C. (And I should mention that Blumenthal had been treasury secretary for President Jimmy Carter, another red flag I missed.) The selling point was that for a very small amount of money, individual Unisys employees could pool their money and be an effective voice in politics and policy. This was, of course, before I was active in politics of any kind. It was only $5 a week or approximately $260 a year. When I received the next annual report and read the article on what this Unisys PAC was up to — lobbying for what was best for Unisys — I thought, “No! No!” I gave that money to lobby for what was best for the United States of America. I canceled my participation right quick!

My second experience with a single-issue PAC was after returning to Freeborn County, and I can’t even remember the year, but as I recall, the acronym for it was ACRE. Their game was supporting candidates who supported legislation considered favorable to electric cooperatives. I had forgotten my disillusionment of my first go-round with a single-issue PAC. I received a newsletter from this PAC, and in it was a list of legislators who were supported. I visited the websites of four of them. One of them was not in total sync with my feelings on issues, and the other three were 180 degrees out of phase with my thoughts. Bingo — I quit that PAC too!

My third disappointment, and I hope last, with a single-issue PAC was when I finally joined the NRA. They have this option to put a few extra bucks toward their legislative PAC. Yep, I fell for it. That lasted until I received the election issue of “America’s First Freedom,” the magazine I chose to receive with my membership. In the election issue candidates are rated “A” thru “F,” just like in school, and then they make recommendations on who to vote for. I believe at least 20 percent of their “A” ratings are wrong, and those folks can’t be counted on. They recommended vote for the 1st Congressional District was Tim Walz, who I was sure would be a turncoat when the Democrats really needed his vote on an issue. He has not had to take that vote yet, but his flip on guns since running for governor seems to prove out my feelings on his real position towards the Second Amendment.

The scoring for a single issue PAC is normally based on 10-20 votes on bills or amendments that have no garbage (add-ons that have nothing to do with the original bill.) This is an easy way to score the folks but is misleading, as is the case with Tim Walz. When the guy leans more toward the garbage — you lose.

I do not think a person should put much faith in a single-issue PAC — at least 50 percent of the time you will be disappointed and most likely very upset if you have some skin in the game through your donated dollars.

An article in last week’s paper on our county roads and lack of funding is what made me remember my pain with the single-issue PAC. Now, I may be the only one who makes the correlation of single-issue PACs to single-source of road maintenance funding — gas tax. Yes, the gas tax should be a portion of the revenue that goes to road maintenance, but so should every other revenue stream have a portion applied to roads and bridges. Every road ever built has a positive influence on commerce. This positive influence results in increased revenue into the tax coffers.

We currently collect enough taxes to pay for excellent roads and bridges without raising gas taxes.

Just as you should look at all issues when picking your candidates, so also should all revenue streams enhanced by good roads and bridges pay for those good roads and bridges.

Alden resident Ebenezer Howe is chairman of the Freeborn County Republican Party. His views do not necessarily reflect the views of the local party members.