GAO Green-Lights White House Interference in Elections

With two federal watchdog agencies freeing the White House drug czar to overtly influence state ballot initiatives, the Senate is poised to reauthorize this anti-democratic exercise for the next five years -- the wheels greased by a ten-year total of $4 billion in taxpayer-funded advertising designed to sway the votes of those who pay for it.

The General Accounting Office recently declared the Bush administration's $22-million multimedia ad campaign touting new Medicare drug benefits to be marred by "omissions and other weaknesses" though not downright illegal. The GAO has also agreed to examine whether the administration's video news releases with fake reporters promoting the Medicare changes violate laws against government "covert propaganda."

But in the flap over what Democrats charge is the administration using public resources to heighten the president's appeal, a recent GAO ruling permitting outright electioneering by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy has escaped notice.

The ONDCP reauthorization bill that has passed the House but stalled in the Senate is an opportunity to unravel a contradictory tangle. Congress needs to square the contradiction between ONDCP's statutory responsibility to advocate a partisan political view -- that is, to oppose state drug reform initiatives -- versus the prohibition on federal officials using public resources to influence the outcome of an election.

The need for congressional resolution is heightened since, echoing a prior ruling by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, the GAO has granted the White House drug czar full license to try to influence the vote on state ballot initiatives, amendments and referenda. On March 10th, the GAO informed John P. Walters he can campaign at will under ONDCP's congressional mandate of "taking such actions as necessary to oppose any attempt to legalize" drugs.

Compared to Walters at least, Clinton drug czar Barry R. McCaffrey trod comparatively lightly as several western states passed medical marijuana initiatives. Despite fathering ONDCP's media campaign -- now slated for a total value over ten years of some $4 billion -- as a direct response to those initiatives, McCaffrey did seem to recognize some limit on his overt anti-initiative campaigning. As Walters himself told the Chicago Tribune last year, "I certainly understand the dangers of federal officials, a White House official, coming to a state and talking about a state ballot issue. We didn't use to do this."

But neither his predecessor's shred of reticence nor his own rhetorical appreciation of the limits on White House electioneering kept Walters from vowing to the Wall Street Journal, "We're going to fight whether we win or lose in every state they [reformers] come in to from now on."

By the GAO's lights, Walters can use tax dollars to loose whatever fictions he wishes upon the land since it saw no need "to examine the accuracy" of an ONDCP pre-election letter to prosecutors nationwide calling on them to oppose what the letter termed "campaigns to normalize and ultimately legalize the use of marijuana." In accompanying material, ONDCP made reference to "state initiatives" and the need for prosecutors to dispel the alleged myths that support their passage.

The GAO decision came in reply to a complaint from Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) regarding ONDCP's efforts in 2002 to sway voters in several states, including Nevadans deciding on whether to regulate and distribute marijuana.

The ONDCP letter to the nation's local prosecutors, written by deputy director Scott Burns, asked them to "take a stand publicly" against "well-financed and deceptive [legalization] campaigns." Topped by a picture of the White House and the bold heading: "Executive Office of the President," Burns' letter no doubt attracted attention in many a local district attorney's office. An accompanying letter from the then president of the National District Attorneys Association, Dan M. Alsobrooks of Tennessee, urged his fellow prosecutors "to consider ways that you can bring this message to your communities."