Israpundit » Blog Archive » Is Obama Violating the Hatch Act?

Israpundit » Blog Archive » Is Obama Violating the Hatch Act?: "The President is, as the head of his party, certainly entitled to give campaign speeches on behalf of Democratic candidates such as Martha Coakley: an individual who advanced her career by keeping an innocent man (Amirault) in prison. We suspect, however, that he cannot legally use taxpayer money for this purpose. Whitehouse.gov, as the property of the United States Government, is the property of America’s taxpayers. Several pages at this Web site endorse the election or re-election of Democratic candidates, and one recommends that people visit Organizing for America (barackobama.com).

We are not an attorney and cannot say whether it is or is not legal to use a Web site of the Federal government to host electioneering speeches that the President delivered legally in other venues such as campaign rallies, but we must certainly question it and invite attorneys to weigh in on the subject. The Hatch Act says, Subject to the provisions of subsection (b), an employee may take an active part in political management or in political campaigns, except an employee may not—(1) use his official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election.” This suggests that the President or any other elected official can campaign for a party member, but cannot use government resources such as Congressional franking privileges, government-owned Web sites, or similar resources for this purpose. We also question a pitch for Barackobama.com (Organizing for America) at Whitehouse.gov.

President Obama gave a speech on behalf of New Jersey’s governor Jon Corzine, and a copy of this speech is hosted at Whitehouse.gov. It is depicted as a “press release” but it nonetheless uses a U.S. Government Web site to advocate the election of a political candidate."