[EL] “The Looming Pay-To-Play Problem”

[Sean Parnell]

Ciara Torres Splliscy’s piece singles out Chevron’s $2.5 million donation to a SuperPAC as problematic because Chevron is a government contractor. Worth keeping in mind is that Chevron’s contracts with the Federal Government in FY 2014 amount to a grand total of about 0.2% of Chevron’s annual revenue, all (as near as I can tell) DoD contracts that were competitively bid (you can find info on the contracts here: https://www.usaspending.gov/Pages/Default.aspx).

 

While I’m no fan of the ban on government contractor contributions, I would at least understand it if it were crafted in such a way that it applied mainly to Raytheon, General Dynamics, LockheedMartin, etc. But it stretches reason, I think, to suggest that First Amendment rights should be stripped from individuals and entities because a tiny sliver of their business, won through open competition, is with the government. Especially when unions and nonprofits who receive grants (not contracts) are not similarly constrained.

 

Sean Parnell

 

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Rick Hasen
Sent: Friday, April 17, 2015 10:17 AM
To: law-election at UCI.edu
Subject: [EL] ELB News and Commentary 4/17/15

 

 

Posted in  <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10> campaign finance,  <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=24> federal election commission


 <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=71803> “The Looming Pay-To-Play Problem”


Posted on  <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=71803> April 17, 2015 7:11 am by  <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3> Rick Hasen

 <https://www.brennancenter.org/blog/looming-pay-play-problem> Ciara Torres-Spelliscy blogs.

 <https://www.addtoany.com/share_save#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D71803&title=%E2%80%9CThe%20Looming%20Pay-To-Play%20Problem%E2%80%9D&description=> Share 

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