People Should Be Reminded
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008USA Today ran this article first part of the year. The last section highlights Nancy Boyda and her interesting behavior. I quote it below:
• On Dec. 19, Rep. Nancy Boyda, a freshman Democrat from Kansas, issued a news release taking credit for a $485,000 grant for a wastewater treatment project in Iola, a town in her district. On Oct. 15, the Van Scoyoc firm had registered to lobby for Iola. On Nov. 1, the firm hosted a fundraiser for Boyda at its offices. The cost for catering, beverages, room rental and incidentals: $1,203, paid for by the firm’s PAC.
On the day the House of Representatives passed the lobbying law in July, Boyda said that the ban on gifts and meals was important to her constituents because “they want to know that I’m not sitting someplace in Washington, D.C., with somebody that gets my attention for two solid hours.”
On Jan. 18, Boyda said, “If the good people of Kansas want to ask if this passes the smell test, I think that it does,” because benefits flowed to her district.
She said towns didn’t need to hire a lobbyist to get access to her and added, “This is why we need public financing. The system is a mess.”