Kay's Senate disclosure...

Senators released their financial disclosures on Friday, and Kay has been included in the wire articles...

She got (link) some money for a seat license at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth...

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Texas Republican, reported that she received between $1,000 and $15,000 for her seat licenses for the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.

She is also being criticized by bloggers for bailout out her own bank holdings (link)...

As if no one would ever notice that members of the Senate Banking Committee that oversees TARP funds actually hold stocks in the government-assisted companies they bailed out - while bailing out their own investments. Skunks!

Senatus lists all the information that is available so far (link)...

Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX):

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) still owns small amounts of stock in Regions Bank, based in Alabama, and Zions Bancorporation, a Salt Lake City company. Both have received TARP money, according to a Treasury Department report.

Props to people who still do real journalism and find these things and publish them for people to see. The Hill was the source that uncovered the TARP bailout angle in the first place (link)...

Senators who oversee the $700 billion Wall Street rescue package held stocks in many of the banks bailed out towards the end of last year, according to financial disclosure reports released Friday.

According to the reports detailing senators’ finances in 2008, nearly half of the members of the Senate Banking Committee had holdings in financial institutions that have taken funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The panel has jurisdiction over the bailout fund and other relief efforts directed by federal regulators to save the nation’s financial system.

Kay also has interests in the firms she oversees in her role as a Senator (link)...

Hutchison Holdings

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, the top Republican on the Commerce Committee, owns $152,000 to $380,000 in stock in companies with communications interests regulated by the panel, according to the Texas lawmaker’s disclosure form. Reported holdings include $50,000 to $100,000 in AT&T Inc. and $101,000 to $250,000 in General Electric Co., which owns 80 percent of the television, film and amusement park company NBC Universal.

“She is in complete compliance with every law and every Senate rule relating to financial interests,” said Lisette Mondello, a spokeswoman for Hutchison. “This year, as in every other year, she always fully discloses her interests.”

Disclosure is good, but it is meaningless without proper public awareness. As far as I am concerned public officials should not have to put their holdings into blind trusts they have no control over, but the disclosure of how they might benefit publicly should be widely available for public consumption.

I am also against campaign finance limitations. I think anyone should be able to take whatever amount from anyone they want, as long as it is fully disclosed and widely available to the public. This would serve the public interest better than the labyrinthine rules in place now. All the current rules do is help keep finance staff and campaign finance lawyers employed, while stifling free speech.

Get the information out there and let the people decide for themselves if it is corruption or personal benefit... or not.