[EL] Civic Courage, Indeed

[Salvador Peralta]

I don't think that candidates should be cloistered monks, but I also don't feel any particular need to buy into the fiction that a pac funded by billionaire allies of the candidate, run by close allies of a candidate, outspending that candidate in key races in a fashion that to all outward appearances seems clearly coordinated, can never be corrupting.  

We limit speech rights all the time.  Many of the strongest opponents of limiting money as speech have demonstrated that they have no problem with limiting political speech when it involves actual speech (e.g., time and place restrictions such as free speech ghettos), but those same people often develop a near-terminal case of the vapors at the prospect that anyone would want to keep billionaires from buying elections on behalf of the candidates they support.  

Shel Adelson effectively purchased the Republican Primary for Newt Gingrich in South Carolina by giving him a $5 million megaphone to "speak" with.  That's 1000x more than he could give directly to Gingrich, yet the public is supposed to passively accept the notion that this was wholly uncoordinated while folks like yourself try and make the argument that such acts could never, ever, possibly be corrupting if it doesn't involve an outright "quid pro quo" transaction?  



________________________________
 From: Jon Roland <jon.roland at constitution.org>
To: law-election at department-lists.uci.edu 
Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2013 8:52 AM
Subject: Re: [EL] Civic Courage, Indeed
 


This discussion is becoming ridiculous. The reforms sought by some here would mean the only way campaign spending can avoid an "appearance" of corruption is if the candidate is some kind of cloistered monk isolated from family, friends, and supporters, who does nothing to get elected other than consenting to be a candidate and then keeps quiet until he is elected.

-- Jon ----------------------------------------------------------
Constitution Society http://constitution.org 2900 W Anderson Ln C-200-322           twitter.com/lex_rex
Austin, TX 78757 512/299-5001 jon.roland at constitution.org ----------------------------------------------------------

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