tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709087743016851805.post7113643766521591099..comments2023-12-14T21:13:46.857-06:00Comments on Tom Roeser's Blog: Pandering Washington RepublicansJake Parrillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11195261008177966339noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709087743016851805.post-21365870817690127162006-04-04T17:53:45.000-05:002006-04-04T17:53:45.000-05:00Frankly, I think there should be strict limits on ...Frankly, I think there should be strict limits on political contributions even to your own campaign. Economic concentrations of power can be just as dangerous to the republic as the ones we're familiar with in the political arena. Full disclosure doesn't undo the damage. For example, everyone knew that Dillinger robbed banks, but that didn't stop him from doing it.David P. Grafnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709087743016851805.post-28446142484749312622006-04-04T08:21:02.000-05:002006-04-04T08:21:02.000-05:00Contributions to any politician, campaign staffer ...Contributions to any politician, campaign staffer or representative, 501c3, 501c4, 527, PAC, or any other such group, that contribution should be posted on the internet.<br><br>Also posted should be any government money directly or indirectly paid to those contributors or their officers and staff such as government grants, contracts, loans, employment, etc.<br><br>The complete balanced books of the recipients should be on the internet: Assets, Liabilities (including loans), Income and Expenses(including payroll).<br><br>Certainly it should apply to all Federal and Statewide candidates. Would it be too burdensome to expect it of local Fire or Park district candidates ? What about the contributions to the local "franchises" of larger campaigns?<br><br>Do we want to "social engineer" ? We could skew the law to help or hurt TV ads, newspaper ads or the ground game.<br><br>Like conservatives who refuse to use "motor voter" to their own advantage, some recent conservative campaigns refused to use the tilt from TV to the ground game to their own advantage when that advantage became obvious in the rules 4 years ago. Ohio and Florida adapted to the new ground game bias. But not Illinois.Bob Schmidtnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709087743016851805.post-8065271242985637342006-04-04T05:25:06.000-05:002006-04-04T05:25:06.000-05:00I agree with the immediate on-line identification ...I agree with the immediate on-line identification of contributors, but also support public financing and contribution limits.<br><br>Instead of responding to your every quip, Tom, I should consider developing a way to gather political contribution info from prior decades and prepare a history of a fictious equity index fund with holdings weighted by corporate contributions to political campaigns. I suspect that -- if the contributions can be that easily tracked -- a Lobbyists 100 Equity Index wouldn't perform that well over time.Bob in PFnoreply@blogger.com