| Let's talk Hatch Act.
A few days ago, David Mauro asked an important question, was David Beckwith using federal resources to campaign or was he campaigning for Junior Senator John Cornyn while the taxpayers picked up the tab.
With over 80 comments on BOR alone, Beckwith very clearly posted comments during traditional work hours (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.). Immediately, Beckwith has violated the spirit of the Hatch Act because he is no longer working on a campaign during his off time hours. At best, Beckwith is a ghost worker and taking taxpayer dollars for no work. At worst, he is paying paid by tax payers to actively engage in partisan political activities.
The Senate Ethics Manual (be careful it is a pdf) states in Chapter 6:
Senate employees are compensated from funds of the Treasury for regular performance of official duties. They are not paid to do campaign work. In the words of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia: ''It is clear from the record that Congress has recognized the basic principle that government funds should not be spent to help incumbents gain reelection.''
[...]
An employee's ''own time'' includes time beyond regular working hours, any accrued annual leave or non-government hours of a part-time employee. Staff may not be required to do political work as a condition of Senate employment. Just as Senate employees are free to campaign for their employing Members on their own time, they may also use their free time or, with the permission of their employing Members, reduce their Senate hours (with a commensurate reduction in pay) to campaign for presidential candidates, other federal candidates, or state or local aspirants. With respect to the question of leave time to perform campaign activities, it is the Committee's understanding that the Senate does not recognize a ''leave of absence.''
Already Beckwith seems to have violated the law, but let's look at some of his comments. Beckwith responds almost exclusively to posts relating to the U.S. Senate race between Noriega and Watts or Noriega and Cornyn.
Let's go through some of the comments now (note most of these comments are during normal work hours and none make it clear that Buck Smith is Beckwith in any way). In one of Buck Smith/ David Beckwith's first comments, he points our readers to a statement by Sen. Cornyn that shows why TSA shouldn't have collective bargaining. Another work time comment critiques a poll done by Survey USA. Yet another comment during business hours asks for Q1 fundraising totals from his boss, John Cornyn. Mr. Beckwith steals an article from Roll Call here and another article on production quality here (did his boss or taxpayers pay for these?). Beckwith tries to suppress Noriega's fundraising here and he attacks the online community and our incredible fundraising efforts here.
Those are just some of the campaign comments he made (there are about 20 more), but I wanted to spend some time on hypocrisy as well.
On more than one occasion, Beckwith either started a rumor/story on BOR or called out other consultants for not mentioning their name. Again it is important to note, at no time did Beckwith mention who he was, who he worked for, or that he was not using state funded internet or computers or time to post these comments.
He outed local political operatives here, here, and he tried incorrectly here. On the other hand he kicked off a story close to home for him here and actively campaign against Rosemary Lehmberg here.
Let's be clear. Beckwith was actively campaigning for John Cornyn. He may or may not have used state resources but he clearly used state time. He violated the Hatch Act directly by advocating against Rosemary Lehmberg for District Attorney and may have violated it another 20 to 30 times from other comments. Beckwith never identified he was or who he worked for so it is likely he knew what he was doing was wrong. While Karen Hughes did not fire Beckwith, it is clear John Cornyn needs to or investigators should find out how much Cornyn knew and what taxpayer resources were going to Beckwith's online endeavors. |
