Claremont Insider: Former Theology School Head Comments on New York Senate Seat

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Former Theology School Head Comments on New York Senate Seat

Former Claremont School of Theology president Robert W. Edgar (pictured, left) made the International Herald Tribune today. Edgar, who is now president and CEO of the public interest group Common Cause, was quoted in an IHT piece about Caroline Kennedy declining to disclose financial and other information to the New York Times following her decision to seek the US Senate seat currently held by US Secretary of State nominee Hillary Clinton.

The IHT sought a number of opinions about Kennedy's reluctance to disclose information to the NYT that she will eventually have to provide if she is appointed to the New York Senate seat:

Others wonder if Kennedy's unwillingness to disclose personal information suggests she lacks the stomach for the kind of intrusive questions that could come her way as a candidate in 2010.

"If this were an open primary, and all the people seeking that position had to run, she'd have to make all those disclosures, so why not in the appointment process?" said Bob Edgar, president of Common Cause, a watchdog group that lobbies for tighter ethics rules. "She can't simply ride in on her name recognition or place in history. The voters and people of New York deserve that full disclosure."

Edgar was president of the Claremont School of Theology from 1990 to 2000. His Wikipedia entry also notes that Edgar represented the 7th District of Pennsylvania in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1975 to 1987.