On Friday, the South Carolina Tea Party Coalition announced that government reformer Adam Andrzejewski will speak at the Coalition’s annual conference next weekend in South Carolina.
Andrzejewski (pictured), founder of OpenTheBooks.com, has built the largest private database of government spending at all levels, giving activists a critical tool to hold officials accountable. The conference takes place January 17-19 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
After losing a close Republican primary for Illinois Governor in 2010, Andrzejewski launched two non-profits, For the Good of Illinois and Open The Books. The latter organization hosts a searchable database with over 1.5 billion records, detailing government spending at the federal, state, and local levels.
The checkbooks of almost every state and many local governments are effectively on-line, allowing activists and concerned citizens to track how government spends taxpayers’ dollars and hold officials accountable for that spending.
Andrzejewski described the effort to Breitbart News as “every dime, online, in real-time.”
“Many people across the country feel that there’s a public crime spree occurring at every level of government,” he said. “I’m from Illinois, where the number-one manufactured product is corruption. I’ll describe our model of using open data and citizen engagement that’s successfully holding the political class accountable for tax and spend decisions.”
Andrzejewski’s work exposed the bonuses paid to incompetent and corrupt VA hospital administrators. His organization exposed federal small business loans flowing to mega-corporations. Recently, the organization has exposed lavish spending and crony contracts at the College of DuPage, in the Chicago suburbs.
The South Carolina Tea Party Coalition conference features a host of speakers from all corners of the conservative movement. Potential presidential aspirants Rick Santorum and Dr. Ben Carson are scheduled to speak and Donald Trump is slated to give the final keynote of the event.
The Coalition’s announcement of Andrzejewski though, shows the breadth and ambition of the conference agenda. The spotlight is important, but the real work for government reform and defending our liberties occurs far from the klieg lights. Every day, activists like Andrzejewski work to bring transparency to every corridor of government power.
These efforts are the greatest disinfectant and are our best hope to clear the obstacles ahead.
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