Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play September 10, 2017

A new way to influence elections without transparency

We are seeing the first detailed evidence of the tampering that went on during the 2016 campaign for U.S. President. This is a whole new category of "nasty" that allows people without scruples to feed false information into the mix without any transparency. In this article, the NY Times lays out a host of Facebook and Twitter advertising that was purchased (estimated at $100,000 in paid advertising) but sources were never revealed - as you might expect.

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play October 28, 2015

Austin Lobbying Reform and Opposition to It

Considering that it reflects a typical approach to lobbying, it is valuable to look at the language of a resolution to improve Austin's lobbying oversight program (attached; see below). It is also valuable to consider the opposition to this resolution by a coalition of local architects, engineers, and contractors, according to an article in the Austin Monitor this week.

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play May 21, 2015

Super PACs Go Local, Big Time

Philadelphia's Democratic mayoral primary this week brings the national focus on Super PACs to the local level. In that primary, which is the most important election in that Democratically-inclined city, most of the money that was spent was spent by Super PACs, not by candidates.

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play February 25, 2015

The Value of a Chicago Referendum on Public Election Financing

Is it, as Every Voice says in its celebratory e-mail last night, an "exciting victory [that] sent a loud and clear mandate to city and state governments to fundamentally reform the way we fund elections so that everyday Americans can take back control of their democracy"?

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play February 12, 2015

Fundraising for a Political Convention: Pay to Play, Transparency, and a Blind Spot

Even the most enthusiastic good government politicians often have a serious blind spot: themselves. They believe that everyone else is into pay to play and selling out to big contributors. But not them. They're only doing what's best for their city. They have only the community's best interests in mind. And sometimes the community needs those big contributors, and who but he is best situated to get them to open their wallets? However, the big contributors don't have the same blind spot, so they don't want the public to know how much they're shelling out.

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play December 17, 2014

The Ethics of Combining Charitable and Campaign Contributions

It amazes me how many ways elected officials misuse charitable organizations to engage in ethical misconduct, especially to get around gift rules. One would think that charities would be sufficiently sacrosanct. But instead they are frequently used as an indirect form of pay to play, and they have played a major role in getting around campaign finance limitations.

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play October 29, 2014

Lobbying City and County Attorneys

There is a front-page article in the New York Times today about the recent increase in lobbying and entertaining state attorneys general (AGs), as well as in campaign contributions from businesses who have a financial interest in decisions that these AGs make, especially with respect to suits they file on behalf of consumers.

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play October 14, 2014

How a Huge Corporation's Political Spending Can Change a City's Ethics Environment

In the last few years, one of the biggest topics in the general area of government ethics, including campaign finance, lobbying, and transparency, has been the effect of huge campaign contributions by corporations and billionaires, which has become increasingly doable pursuant to a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play October 11, 2014

How to Identify and Prevent Pay to Play

An article today in the New York Times describes a situation that sheds light on pay to play. It involves the Westchester County (NY) county executive, who is getting special scrutiny because he is running for governor and has, throughout his career, as well as in this election, been openly critical of pay to play. He is being accused of hypocrisy, but it may just be that he does not really understand what pay to play is, why it is problematic, or how to prevent it.

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play July 17, 2014

Differing Views on Corruption and Campaign Finance

I keep thinking about the recent line of U.S. Supreme Court campaign finance cases that limit corruption to "quid pro quo" situations. A few months ago, I wrote a blog post explaining that the Court's picture of campaign finance as about political beliefs is not how things work at the local level, where politics is more about power and spoils than about beliefs. But the "quid pro quo" view of corruption is problematic in other ways.

Subscribe to Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play