7 March 2017

Dear Representative Jenkins,

If our republic is to be a democracy, to represent the will of the people, to effect the sovereignty of the citizenry, then elections must be carried out in the most fair, reliable, and transparent way possible.

Ensuring that votes cast are counted reliably (much more important to have a clear result and a verifiable paper trail than to have answers quickly), and that citizens have easy access to the ballot, are critical civil rights issues that the Sessions-led Department of Justice must not be allowed to let fall by the wayside.

Regulation of political expenditures is clearly necessary, well beyond our current system that allows money to flow into local, state, and national campaigns without being accounted for or accountable. Contribution limits have clearly failed to keep the wealthiest people and corporations from leveraging their resources into outsized influence, but that doesn't mean that abandoning the idea of a level playing field makes any sense: rather what's needed is greater transparency, a relatively easy fix in the age of internet access, so that all donations are accounted for and credited.

And, needless to say, while it's not at all unusual for the international community to take an interest in US politics, the intersection of interests and careers between the Trump campaign and Vladimir Putin's Russia and his kleptocratic oligarch associates is bizarre. While the idea that the Obama administration wiretapped the Trump campaign without proper warrants and protections is absurd (and if they had, why wouldn't they release any of the information they gatherered?!), a careful examination of how overseas computer intrusions were coordinated with domestic political actors, a proper audit of voting results, and a serious discussion of how US policy is being reshaped are absolutely necessary.

Conflict of interest laws are supposed to protect the citizens of this country from leaders who put their own interests and their family interests ahead of the common welfare. Nepotism, self-dealing, personal enrichment are violations of the public trust and need to be consistently and coherently punished. Congress has a critical role to play in making sure that the executive branch is living up to the standards which the American people have historically expected and deserve; for the last eight years, at least, Congress has taken that role somewhat seriously, and there is no reason for that to change.

Respectfully,

....