Transparency goes big-time

A google news search for “transparency” in the past week gets more than 24,500 results. About 5000 of these are comprised of “transparency obama,” probably spurred by his recent (re)focusing on earlier transparency promises. This accounts almost 20% of the hits for ‘transparency’ alone.

But the existence of the other 80% shows that transparency is a topic on the minds of many outside of the current news cycle.

This may be due largely in part to the fact that information is so easily accessible today, so candidates are forced the face the question: you can provide the voters information and make it available online—will you?

In state and local Illinois campaigns, this couldn’t be clearer. The state comptroller race, for example, has transparency as a common theme with one candidate being focused on a favorite of Sunshine Review staff, usability:

For the GOP, Dodge wants to make the comptroller’s Web site more user friendly, citing the difficulty of trying to find out how much a company earns from the state.

You can have all of the documents in the world on your website, but it doesn’t mean a thing if they can’t be found.

The races for the open U.S. Senate seat and for the Illinois governorship have also had the discussion turn to transparency.

Those who have been losing popularity points know to jump on the bandwagon. Todd Stroger has been asking his opponents to follow in his footsteps by releasing their tax returns. For Stroger, it may be too little too late, with opponents calling this a “publicity stunt.” Still, others should learn from his lesson, and deliver on their promises of transparency, or be prepared to pay the price on polling day. Transparency as an important issue for candidates for public office is here to stay.