I had a LTE in the Pittsburgh Trib today (7/30/2008) that was prompted by this editorial:
www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/letters/send/s_579070.html of a few day ago.  It regarding how taxpayers might never be reimbursed financially for all the Bonusgate hours spent by lower level staffers.   

That got me thinking that there are others who were arguably wronged and that, in turn, led me to wonder about another kind of restitution.

Mark

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http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/letters/send/s_580040.html

Bonus restitution
Wednesday, July 30, 2008

The Trib is correct that not requiring legislative staffers to reimburse taxpayers for their political crimes done on the clock sends the wrong message ("The Bonus Scandal: No Restitution?," Editorial, July 24 and PghTrib.com).

Unfortunately, there are other theft victims -- third party and independent candidates. For years non-incumbents had to, for example, collect far more ballot access signatures than necessary just to survive the threat of a partisan challenge.

The Bonusgate juggernaut shows how real the threat is. Even today, this threat limits political choice for Pennsylvanians by draining scarce resources to counter being Bonusgated.

As a Libertarian Party member who has spent his own time and money working for political choice in Pennsylvania, I think there's an obvious restitution courts might consider.

Require House and Senate staffers to work for third party and independent campaigns. For every hour spent stealing political choice, they should spend an hour restoring political choice -- but with their own time and money.

Imagine them copying pamphlets, distributing literature, making phone calls, chauffeuring candidates, writing letters, soliciting contributions and, of course, collecting valid ballot access signatures.

What lesson could be fairer?

Mark Crowley
Plum