[EL] Check out Unions ready to send volunteers out for Obama | Fox News

[Larry Levine]

The going rate these days for a top quality paid canvass is $150 per shift.
In a shift a canvasser will reach about 100 voting households. An employer
(or union, or corporate) paid canvass would quickly exceed the contribution
limits in any campaign governed by such limits. As an independent
expenditure, however, the sky's the limit. But do the math and see how many
paid canvassing shifts a union would need to do to match what Sheldon
Adelson has said he will spend in support of Romney. The answer is 660,000
shifts.
Larry

-----Original Message-----
From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
[mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of
Lowenstein, Daniel
Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2012 10:09 AM
To: JBoppjr at aol.com; jerald.lentini at gmail.com
Cc: law-election at uci.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] Check out Unions ready to send volunteers out for Obama |
Fox News

          I don't suppose the work that most volunteers do for a campaign
has a market value of $30 - 50 per hour.  Though that is a point worth
making, it hardly reduces Jim's point to "no sense."  First, give the work a
valuation that is probably too low--say ten dollars an hour--and the total
is still immense.  Second, under most campaign finance laws, if the person
who provides services to the campaign is paid for the time by his employer,
then the services constitute an in-kind contribution from the employer.  I
will gladly accept correction from others who know these details better than
I do, but I believe the employer must value the services at the employee's
regular rate of pay, though the value of the services to the campaign are
likely lower than the value of the employee's day job.

             Best,

             Daniel H. Lowenstein
             Director, Center for the Liberal Arts and Free Institutions
(CLAFI)
             UCLA Law School
             405 Hilgard
             Los Angeles, California 90095-1476
             310-825-5148


________________________________
From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
[law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of JBoppjr at aol.com
[JBoppjr at aol.com]
Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2012 7:03 AM
To: jerald.lentini at gmail.com
Cc: law-election at uci.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] Check out Unions ready to send volunteers out for Obama |
Fox News

One of my assumptions was that this was just for one day's work.  I now see
from this Click here: Labor chief Trumka vows stronger ground game for
elections - Washington
Times<http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/9/labor-chief-trumka-vows
-stronger-ground-game-elect/>  that it is much more than that.

No, I don't know what the going rate for canvassers is.  Maybe someone on
the list serve can provide that info.  In any event, we are talking about
100s of millions of dollars for this effort.

And, JR, I know that your name calling is intended to chill my speech (boy,
we have seen a lot of that coming from the left these days) but, sorry, it
just won't work.  Jim Bopp

In a message dated 8/11/2012 9:29:00 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
jerald.lentini at gmail.com writes:
Jim, all else aside, do you really think the value of an in-kind
contribution is what the person's normal hourly rate doing something
completely different would be, and not the value of the service actually
rendered?

Unless you think a canvassing program that happens outside business hours
should be valued as an in-kind contribution of what the volunteers would
make doing their regular jobs (which are most likely a little more taxing
than knocking on doors), then your snark makes no sense.

-JR


On Sat, Aug 11, 2012 at 9:09 AM, <JBoppjr at aol.com<mailto:JBoppjr at aol.com>>
wrote:
    AFL-CIO to send out 3 or 400,000 volunteers to help Obama.  See

Click here: Unions ready to send volunteers out for Obama | Fox
News<http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/08/09/unions-ready-to-send-volunteers-ou
t-for-obama/#ixzz2352FkkuX>

    I have always been curious why the "reformers" only focus only on money.
This sure seems like a very valuable contribution to the Obama campaign to
me (if this is coordinated, but I cannot figure that out. Anyway the
"reformers" say it doesn't matter -- corruption either way).  Many of these
volunteers make 30, 40 or 50 dollars an hour, so this is a 144 million
dollar contribution to the Obama campaign. 400,000 x 8 x 40 = $144,000,000.

    And the "reformer" scream bloody murder over contributions from
corporations of a few thousand.  Jim Bopp

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