SECTION B
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Court Upholds Roadless Rule

Senate Moments...

Senator Condemned for Excessive
Campaign Expenditures  -- 1918

Washington, DC: The Sierra Club today praised the decision of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to protect the last pristine areas of National Forests that are vulnerable to logging. The Court today lifted an
injunction against the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

The case involving the landmark protection plan now goes back to U.S. District Court in Idaho.

"It's good news that the court upheld Americans' right to say they want

these special places protected for future generations to enjoy," said Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club. "Americans overwhelmingly support protecting wild forests, and the Bush Administration should honor the wishes of citizens, not special interests."

In the ruling, the Court of Appeals stated, "Roadless areas in our national forests also help conserve some of the last unspoiled wilderness in our  country. The unspoiled forest provides not only sheltering shade for the visitor and sustenance for its diverse wildlife but also pure water and fresh oxygen for humankind." (pg 38)

In January 2001, the Forest Service completed the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, a historic plan to protect nearly 60 million acres of
the last wild areas in our National Forests. The rule marked the end of a public process that included more than 600 public meetings and spanned three years.

During the rulemaking, the administration received a
record-breaking one million public comments in support of protecting wild forests. To date, the Forest Service has received more than 2 million comments from the American people, overwhelmingly in favor of the strongest protections for these wild forests.

Despite the overwhelming public support for protecting America's wild forests, the Bush Administration has been moving forward to log in the last wild areas of our National Forests--including Alaska's Tongass Rainforest.

The Administration has remained silent in the face of attempts by the timber industry to challenge the Roadless Area Conservation Rule in court.

Wild forests have some of the highest quality fish and wildlife habitat, backcountry recreation and clean water supplies in the country. More than half of our National Forest land has already been hammered by logging, road building and other destructive activities. This plan would protect the last wild areas from new roadbuilding and commercial logging for all Americans to enjoy.

The 1918 election to fill one of Michigan's U.S. Senate seats proved to be one of the most bitter and costly contests of that era. Its spending excesses prompted widespread calls for campaign finance reform.

To bolster his party's slim Senate majority, President Woodrow Wilson convinced automaker Henry Ford to run in the Michigan Democratic senatorial primary. Trying to improve his chances of victory, the super-rich Ford also entered that state's Republican primary. Although he lost the Republican contest to industrialist Truman Newberry, Ford captured the Democratic nomination and set out to crush Newberry in the general election. In Newberry, Ford had a tough opponent with similarly unlimited financial resources. Making effective use of campaign advertising, Newberry charged Ford with pacifism, anti-Semitism, and favoritism in his efforts to help his son, Edsel, avoid military service in the first World War.

Newberry narrowly defeated Ford, but charges that he had intimidated voters and violated campaign-spending laws limiting the amount of personal funds candidates could spend on their races clouded his claim to the seat.

The Senate provisionally seated him in May 1919, pending the outcome of an investigation. As that inquiry got underway, a federal grand jury indicted Newberry on several counts of campaign law violations. Despite the senator's assertions that he knew nothing of illegal contributions and disbursements, massive evidence, gathered with the help of agents financed by Henry Ford, indicated otherwise. Found guilty on those charges in March 1920, Newberry launched an appeal that resulted in a May 1921 Supreme Court reversal of his conviction.

The Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections investigated the matter and conducted a recount the general election ballots. The committee recommended that the Michigan senator retain his seat after determining that the large amounts spent on Newberry's behalf were not his own funds but were contributed by relatives and friends without his solicitation or knowledge.

On January 12, 1922, a narrowly divided Senate affirmed that Newberry had been duly elected, but nonetheless "severely condemned" his excessive campaign expenditures as "harmful to the honor and dignity of the Senate." In the face of continuing controversy, Newberry resigned from the Senate later that year. The Newberry case led Congress in 1925 to enact a new Federal Corrupt Practices Act, but this statute proved ineffective in containing congressional campaign financial irregularities in the decades ahead

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