Senate rules put candidates’ Web sites in mothballs

WASHINGTON – For Maine voters trying to decide whether to re-elect Republican Sen. Susan Collins, her official Senate Web site isn’t likely to be much help.

Under Senate rules, Collins and the 29 other senators running for re-election can’t update their Web sites for the last 60 days before Election Day. The rule, designed to prevent political campaigning on government sites, is being criticized by some government watchdog groups and congressional staff for interfering with lawmakers’ legitimate communication with constituents.

The House of Representatives doesn’t have this restriction. In South Dakota, Republican Rep. John Thune can update his site as frequently as he likes, while his opponent, Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson, hasn’t changed his site since Sept. 5. This year, races in Louisiana, Iowa and Georgia also feature Senate incumbents facing challenges from sitting House members.

Caileen Nutter, a Collins spokeswoman, said the senator’s office understands the rule and abides by it, but acknowledges it can make communicating with constituents more complicated than before.

“We have a disclaimer explaining the rule on the site, but sometimes people don’t see it, they just go straight to the press release page,” Nutter said. “When they see there haven’t been any updates, they call up and ask, ‘Why haven’t you done anything on this topic?’ It gets frustrating, because we want them to know everything that we’re doing. For people for whom the Internet is their main way of getting information, it limits our ability to get the news to them.”

Nutter said the rule leads to “a lot of extra faxing,” compared to before the 60-day limit, when queries could be referred to the Web page. She said that since the limit went into effect on Sept. 5, Collins has wanted to update the site with information on new funding grants awarded to organizations in Maine and her views on the debate surrounding military action in Iraq.

“If 9-11 had happened during a campaign year, the New York senators would not have been able to update their Web sites to tell their constituents how to contribute to relief programs,” said Brad Fitch, deputy director of the Congressional Management Foundation, a nonprofit group that studies Congress’ management practices.

When enacting the rule in 1996, the Senate used rules for mass mailings, which are prohibited in the 60 days leading up to an election, as a guide. But the House decided that information that a constituent sought on the Web was different from unsolicited mail sent to a voter’s home.

Several senators, including Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., have requested that the rule be changed. “The rule was written by people who just don’t understand the Internet,” Leahy said in 2000.

Ari Schwartz, associate director at the Center for Democracy and Technology, concurs. He wants members’ Web sites to be updated throughout the campaign season, and lawmakers who campaign on their official office site to be punished under existing ethics rules.

“We wouldn’t expect them to not answer the phone because we’re afraid they might campaign on the phone,” Schwartz said.

Schwartz’s organization met with Senate Rules and Administration Committee chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and discussed the issue last year, but the Sept. 11 attacks changed Congress’ immediate priorities. He said that there was some interest in changing the rules last year, but “it’s hard to get lawmakers to pay attention in a nonelection year.”

A spokeswoman for the Senate Committee, which oversees such matters, said it was unlikely that the committee would make any changes in the near future.

“There’s a tension here between competing interests,” said Paul Sanford, a director at the Center for Responsive Politics. “These resources can be very valuable and have some impact on the election. Because of that, the use of a Web site for those purposes would give incumbents an advantage wholly funded by the treasury – it’s public money. They’re drawing a line here and it’s a reasonable line.”