Update: Robert Dempsey, executive director of the Vermont Democratic party, announced today that the press will be allowed to attend the Barney Frank event. He had previously said: “It’s not necessarily a matter of policy to make all our events open to the press.”
Editor’s note: This column from the Vermont News Guy comes to vtdigger.org through a special arrangement.
PROGRAM NOTE: The News Guy will be on Vermont This week on Vermont Public Television at 7:30PM, repeated Sunday at 11:30 AM, for those otherwise occupied Friday evening. (Don’t tell anyone, but the program is actually taped mid-afternoon).
No car chases, dancing movie stars, or crime laboratories, but possibly some informed discussion about what’s going on in the state this week.
Speaking of political events scheduled this weekend, the Vermont Democratic Party has a humdinger on tap Sunday evening. Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, will be the guest speaker at a fund-raiser at the Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center on Burlington’s lakeside.
It isn’t just that Frank’s chairmanship makes him one of the most influential members of Congress in these days of financial crisis. It’s also that he’s a piece of work. He’s genuinely witty, as opposed to all those pols who hire a good speechwriter to come up with a joke or two. Though clearly on the liberal side of most policy debates, he’s not a knee-jerk anything, and is not afraid to find fault with his own allies even as he can be caustic about the Republican opposition.
Just the guy whose remarks might enliven Vermont Democrats as well as raise some money for the party.
As of Tuesday evening, though only the 60-to-100 Vermont Democrats who pay their $50 (or more) to attend the event will have the foggiest idea what Frank says Sunday, or what Vermont’s own Rep. Peter Welch says, either.
“We’re not making the event open to the press,” said Robert Dempsey, the party’s executive director.
Why? Because the party is “trying to raise money,” Dempsey said. “It’s not necessarily a matter of policy to make all our events open to the press.”
OK, for the following reasons, the rest of this exercise is not going to be too hard on Dempsey or the Vermont Democrats:
Reason One. There is no law requiring the Democrats to allow reporters into the reception at the Lake Street Landing’s Great Room. A political party is a private entity, and so is Lake Street Landing, although it’s a public accommodation.
Reason Two. In general, Democrats are not as restrictive as Republicans in these matters, and it could just be happenstance that the matter came up for the first time (as far as this web site is concerned) over a Democratic event.
Reason Three. All around the country, closed political fund-raisers have become more common, so common that reporters seem to have ceased complaining about being denied access. They should not so cease.
Reason Four. The Dems have at least three days in which to change their mind, and they might. In a second telephone conversation, Dempsey said party officials were “looking into whether to make the general reception” open to reporters.
But the reconsideration came only after he was told that, while the party had the right to ban the press, members of the press had the right to call the decision really, really, dumb.
So before going any further, let’s do that. This decision, if not reversed (and maybe even if it is), is really, really dumb.
One would think that Vermont Democrats would want to expose some of Barney Frank’s bons mots to the widest possible audience. The smart thing would be to invite all the radio and television stations in, as well as print reporters, hoping that some of the guest speaker’s sharper anti-Republican rhetoric would get on the air, or at least into the newspaper, or at least on line.
Keeping the press out is also very un-Barney-Frankish, especially for those who remember young Massachusetts State Legislator Barney Frank attending left-of-liberal conferences with allies such as the late Michael Harrington, with their constant and heartfelt pledges of openness and transparency.
Besides, there is really only one reason politicians want to close their meetings: because they are doing something in there that they don’t want the public to see.
Or, more accurately, it is perfectly reasonable for the public to assume, or least to suspect, that the pols want no prying eyes because they’re doing…well, something they shouldn’t be doing.
Even though they aren’t. It’s absurdly unlikely that Vermont Democrats and Barney Frank will be doing anything illegal, immoral, or underhanded Sunday evening. Nor is it at all likely that Frank will say anything out of journalistic earshot that he wouldn’t say in front of a barrage of cameras and tape recorders.
There won’t even be any active fund-raising taking place at the general reception, starting at 5:30. Dempsey was very open and candid about the proceedings. Everyone at the general reception would pay $50, all of which will eventually be a matter of public record. But they will have already paid it, or will pay as they enter. There’s nothing scandalous or disgraceful about that, so no reason to keep it secret.
So why raise suspicions by closing the reception, in which two members of Congress will make speeches in a quasi-public venue? Such meetings should be open. They used to be, almost without exception. Closing them only makes press and public alike wonder what the politicians are hiding.
A half hour earlier, Dempsey said, special (meaning higher-donating) guests may attend a “host reception,” for which they will pay anywhere from $250 to $2,500.
These more exclusive meetings are routinely closed to the press, and perhaps reporters should complain about that, too. But candidates and officeholders don’t make speeches at those sessions, and, again, the contributions don’t stay secret.
Dempsey said the Democrats were hoping for 100 guests, though
Melinda Moulton of Main Street Landing said the Great Room wouldn’t hold that many. But then she said maybe it would. Moulton appeared to be having a bad day. Asked how much the Democrats were paying for the facility, she snapped, “none of your business,” apparently unaware that in politics, these expenditures are eventually a matter of public record. (Dempsey said he would look up the figure and call back, but as of Tuesday night he had not).
The final reason that closing the reception is foolish is that nobody might want to cover it anyway. Yes, the News Guy asked about access, but it was a tentative question, and with political coverage generally at a low ebb these days, the evening might have come and gone without a reporter coming within a mile of the venue (guessing it’s about a mile from the Burlington Free Press building).
Now some reporters, maybe even this one, might feel obligated to show up. Democrats (and, without doubt, Republicans, too) you really don’t have anything to hide. So stop hiding.
