Walter Stosch and PayDay Loans

26 January, 2007. 316 words.

Continuing my observations of local politics, I perked up this morning when I heard Virginia 12th District General Assembly Senator Walter Stosch talking on the radio about his bill to repeal the Payday Loan Act here in Virginia. Apparently it’s not going so well; he didn’t seem optimistic about the bill’s passage.

I’m not a fan of payday lenders, but I’m undecided about regulating them. I could go either way. For myself, I would have to be insanely desperate-like, getting ready to sign the bankruptcy papers-to consider one, and I would certainly advise anyone I knew to avoid them like the plague, but hey if people want to throw their money and their lives away that’s their business I guess.

Anyway, getting back to Stosch, the thing that caught my attention was this: Apparently he’s received substantial campaign contributions from payday lenders, yet he’s sponsoring SB1326, a bill to repeal the Payday Loan Act. And he said he never considered returning the contributions, either, because his accountant handles contributions so he never knows who’s contributing to his campaign and who isn’t. Or something to that effect.

I find it hard to believe Stosch wouldn’t realize who’s contributing to his campaign, so I see two possible scenarios here: Either a) he’s happy to take money from lobbyists but doesn’t listen to a word they say, which could either be comforting or disconcerting depending on how you look at it, or b) he’s putting on a show of opposing payday loans for his constituents while secretly knowing and assuring his payday lender lobbyists that his bill won’t pass, which sounds downright deceitful.

I don’t know enough about Stosch or the inner workings of the General Assembly to speculate any further, but the apparent conflict of interest seems very odd to me.

Thomas Krehbiel writes The Krehbiel Strikes Back, a generally centrist commentary on news, media, politics, and culture.

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