[EL] Check out TALLAHASSEE: Support mounts to allow unlimited political contributi

[Michael McDonald]

No, I was not implying that Jim is hypocritical since I thought it was
common knowledge that Jim believes disclosure leads to harassment and worse.
Through the power of e-mail archives, we have such gems from Jim in the last
election as:

7/27/12 "Another Romney supporter harassed after Obama campaign posts a
negative story about him on their campaign web site."

And 

7/25/12 "Romney donor bashed by Obama campaign now target of two federal
audits | Fox News"

After debating disclosure over the past year, I am truly surprised that I
completely misunderstood Jim's position on disclosure. Disclosure is
okay(!); the issue is just setting the right contribution amount for
disclosure. But, I'm struggling to understand what level is the right amount
since the second story that Jim graced us with is about Frank Vandersloot,
whose company gave $1 million to a Romney SuperPAC and claimed to have
raised between $2 to $5 million for the Romney campaign as a national
finance co-chair.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0512/76899.html

What I was thought I was doing was poking Jim for approving only half of the
reform package and conveniently ignoring the part he doesn't agree with. A
reform trajectory on campaign finance has been for reformers to be willing
to give in on contribution limits if there would be disclosure, a deal that
many conservatives agreed to at the time. Once the contribution limits were
gone, the attack on disclosure commenced. But I'll play Brad's game: The
Tallahassee newspaper story does not say what contribution limit would be
subjected to disclosure...perhaps Brad and Jim would be willing to state for
posterity what disclosure threshold they would be willing to accept in
exchange for unlimited contribution limits.

============
Dr. Michael P. McDonald
Associate Professor
George Mason University
4400 University Drive - 3F4
Fairfax, VA 22030-4444

703-993-4191 (office)
e-mail:  mmcdon at gmu.edu               
web:     http://elections.gmu.edu
twitter: @ElectProject     

-----Original Message-----
From: Smith, Brad [mailto:BSmith at law.capital.edu] 
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2013 10:03 AM
To: mmcdon at gmu.edu; law-election at uci.edu
Subject: RE: [EL] Check out TALLAHASSEE: Support mounts to allow unlimited
political contributi

This is a point, not a question. Michael seems to imply, rather unsubtly,
that Jim is being hypocritical here. Probably I should let Jim speak for
himself, but I have never understood Jim to oppose the disclosure of
campaign contributions to candidates and parties.

I think there is a growing majority of those who seriously study the issue
(i.e. academics, not the activists) that disclosure thresholds should be set
higher than they have been, but that's another issue. I've not known Jim to
oppose disclosure of contributions to candidates, as Michael suggests he
does. 

Bradley A. Smith
Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault
   Professor of Law
Capital University Law School
303 E. Broad St.
Columbus, OH 43215
614.236.6317
http://law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.aspx

________________________________________
From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
[law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] on behalf of Michael
McDonald [mmcdon at gmu.edu]
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2013 9:23 AM
To: law-election at uci.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] Check out TALLAHASSEE: Support mounts to allow
unlimited       political contributi

Jim, I take it your positive comment means you also approve of their call
unlimited contribution limits if there is within 24-hour on-line public
disclosure.

============
Dr. Michael P. McDonald
Associate Professor
George Mason University
4400 University Drive - 3F4
Fairfax, VA 22030-4444

703-993-4191 (office)
e-mail:  mmcdon at gmu.edu
web:     http://elections.gmu.edu
twitter: @ElectProject

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
[mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of
JBoppjr at aol.com
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2013 7:08 AM
To: rhasen at law.uci.edu; law-election at uci.edu
Subject: [EL] Check out TALLAHASSEE: Support mounts to allow unlimited
political contributi

Another state facing the reality that only by eliminating candidate
contribution limits can there be real accountability and transparency.
Interestingly, this time proposed by campaign finance reformers.  Jim Bopp

Click here: TALLAHASSEE: Support mounts to allow unlimited political
contributions in Florida - Florida - MiamiHerald.com#stor

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