Editorial: Porter needs to come clean

Thursday, Oct. 26, 2006 | 7:58 a.m.

There's a simple way for Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., to clear up allegations that he broke federal law by dialing for dollars from his congressional offices: Turn over his phone records and appointment calendars.

That would be the simple way to address a very serious charge, that Porter, using a cell phone, solicited campaign donations from his congressional offices. But while Porter's office denies the allegations, made by the congressman's former scheduler, it has yet to release any documents proving otherwise. That's odd considering early voting already is under way, and we would think he would want to clear this up as quickly as possible.

In 2002 Congress tightened the law in the Republican fervor over former Vice President Al Gore, who admitted using a calling card to make fundraising calls from the White House.

Considering the bill during a hearing in 2000, Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., then the House Judiciary Committee chairman, said, "It seems to me that the taxpayers who buy these buildings, all of the federal buildings, and maintain the federal property, are entitled not to have them exploited for partisan political purposes. I don't care what party or for what end. Federal government buildings ought to stick to the business of governing and not fundraising, and that is the only reason this bill exists."

So the law was rewritten to declare it illegal for any federal employee or elected official to solicit or receive money "while in any room or building occupied in the discharge of official duties by an officer or employee of the United States."

The story that Porter's former aide tells and the e-mails detailing the calls, which were published in the Las Vegas Sun on Wednesday, demand that the congressman answer the charges. Porter might think stonewalling will make this issue go away, but it won't go away. We don't think voters will be forgiving if Porter continues this evasion.