Campaign Finance Reform

[Dick Cassul]

Are you suggesting political campaign advertisements be classified as "public announcements"?

Yes or the various Networks could solicit sponsors where all potentiol Candidates can share the same amount of time during the broadcast.

[ginger]

Yes or the various Networks could solicit sponsors where all potentiol Candidates can share the same amount of time during the broadcast.

Sponsors like? Tide? Turn the "Tide" of New York! Vote for Carl Paladino! Is that what you mean? I don't hate that idea, that could be fun...product placement politics!

[ginger]

On a serious note, maybe someone with a law backround can answer a question I have about equal protection and due process as it relates to publicly financed campaigns. I'm not sure if my logic is sound. It seems to me that if I have to pay for publicly financed campaigns then EVERYBODY has to pay. I just finished reading the 12-3-12 Campaign Finance Institute report which states the program they want to institute will on average cost $2.00 per capita.
Who is going to be responsible for taking $2.00 out of my mother's social security check? Who is going be responsible for collecting that $2.00 from the welfare crackhead down the street? Or, Am I GOING TO GET STUCK PAYING FOR ALL OF THESE PEOPLE TOO?

[ginger]

Sponsors like? Tide? Turn the "Tide" of New York! Vote for Carl Paladino! Is that what you mean? I don't hate that idea, that could be fun...product placement politics!

We won't need pollsters anymore...If we do it right, we might not even have to vote! Oh but then again, what if you like Carl but you're allergic to Tide,,I guess that won't work.

[ginger]

You know, the more I think about this the more I like it. Some people watch the superbowl just for the commercials. Instead of everyone loathing the political seasons incessant vitriol, something like that^ may actually increase voter turnout and participation.

[ginger]

I just remembered I had started this thread. To continue...on Friday YNN announced Shirley Huntley D-Queens was operating as a NYS Senator while wired. Hey Preet Bharara! How does it feel to know everday in your job, by definition of doing your job correctly on the criminal side, YOU ARE THE PROXIMATE CAUSE FOR AN ENTIRE STATE LOSING THEIR SOVEREIGNTY? I want the votes of Castro and Huntley stricken from the record. Any legislation that turned on these 2 votes should be revisited and brought back to the table. I'm so glad that while Governor Cuomo is busy writing a book, a federal prosecutor is determining the history of NEW YORK STATE.The end does not justify the means.

Last night, I saw the Preet Bharara interview with Liz Benjamin. He admits he's still investigating in Albany. How many more wired representatives are there? He states the taxpayers are sympathetic because the corruption is so widespread. Well, that's nice but he's an Obama appointee and he allowed these people to vote to change the history of NY in ways that are not easily appealable...rational basis, strict whatever...He's wasting a lot of peoples time and money. In fact, Preet Bharara said it himself with regard to tax payer funded campaign funds...those people were never supposed to be there in the first place. When all is said and done, I still expect that legislation affected to be revisited.

[ginger]

re PBS today...Governor Cuomo wants to try campaign finance on a limited basis (just the comptrollers race) utilizing...THE STATES UNCLAIMED PROPERTY FUND (abandoned property) WHICH IS ADMINSTERED BY THE COMPTROLLERS OFFICE!

 

Even more hilarious, he wants the max contribution to be $175.00 which will be matched with the unclaimed property funds x6=$1050 Does that number sound familiar to anyone? It should. That is the potential maximum child dependent care credit(smirk).

 

A question I have, not funny...are candidates allowed to opt out and not accept the funds? I don't think a candidate should be forced to accept money when they don't know to whom it belongs.

[Bingoloid]

On the subject of your original post, Ginger, yes, I think what you're saying sarcastically is actually true. Without money, you don't get to act any way at all, because you aren't a candidate. Nobody will ever know your name...and of course, a lot of union members pay a lot of union dues that go to support a lot of causes your average union member wouldn't support, etc. It's not a fair system.

 

With that said, life isn't fair, and I think I agree with Bryan Caplan (good book: "The Myth of the Rational Voter"). Voters actually tend to get more or less what they vote for from their candidates, but when voters don't understand what they're voting for and/or support bad ideas and it blows up in their face, they assume the candidates must have lied to them or been secretly manipulated by special interests in order to avoid believing that they made a mistake. People have a strong bias against believing they are wrong, and delusional political beliefs seemingly have a relatively low cost ("my one vote doesn't change anything"), so people don't put the same effort into figuring out how to vote that they might put into choosing a job or a car, or even a cellphone.

 

I can't tell you how many dedicated voters I encountered when I was active in politics who either had the stated positions of the two parties reversed in their minds or were single-issue voters who didn't know or care that their party opposed them on 9 out of 10 other issues. I'm not sure anything to do with campaign finance can fix that.

[ginger]

^ Thanks for you contemplation on the subject. Still, I really resent that NYS would consider creating a brand new bureaucracy that will need to be staffed and funded and who is going to pay for that? Are you going to pay for that with unclaimed property (or interest) too? How much do you think that will cost, just for the one race?

[Bingoloid]

^ Thanks for you contemplation on the subject. Still, I really resent that NYS would consider creating a brand new bureaucracy that will need to be staffed and funded and who is going to pay for that? Are you going to pay for that with unclaimed property (or interest) too? How much do you think that will cost, just for the one race?

 

No, there's no "still". I'm agreeing with you. The point I'm getting at is that even if we could afford public finance and people were behind it, I think the people who believe it would change things are kidding themselves.

 

It's actually probably one of the bad ideas I was hinting at, where if voters who support it got exactly what they asked for and it blew up in their faces, they'd just assume that the candidates must have tricked them somehow.

[PeteMoss]

If we go to public financing, the politicians will make a requirement that you have to have a specific percentage of support.

The percentage will be set at a point that rules out most 3rd party candidates.

[ginger]

I just read something the NYS board of regents wrote in 1873...(paraphrasing) In seeking to possess a perfect system through the operation of legalized injustice, we must not wring from the hand of honest industry and its hard earned wages. One dollar equals 6 dollars to some people and not others, for a limited trial? Wouldn't that be legalized injustice?

[ginger]

^ As the legislature looks at the Datta situation with regard to the word MANDATORY...I hope the dems in our area are willing to concede, MANDATORY campaign contributions through taxation is also wrong.

[ginger]

Here we go again. NOT ONE PENNY! You do not get to take food from my plate and serve yourselves.

I see Ilhan Omar's boyfriend is eatin' good in the neighborhood to the tune of $300,000 or more. 

ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Edited December 2, 2019 by ginger
STILL MAD

[ginger]

Let me keep going....Mayor De Blasio's wife...millions missing from THRIVE NY

Joe Bidens son...$85,000 a month...that's just off the top of my head. Give me time, I'll think of more.

 

[ginger]

And I don't want to hear the argument that's how you get new people in. Rashida Tlaib and AOC ARE new and they're being investigated for using campaigns funds for their own personal needs too. 

[ginger]

$100 million for state campaign finance? Still insisting on stealing money out of my pocketbook to feed yourselves. There's a reason they call GOUT the disease of the Kings.

http://blog.handcare.org/blog/2019/04/17/gout-disease-of-the-kings/

 

 

[ginger]

Campaign Finance reform has once again reared its ugly head in the NYS legislature. I'm not sure where in the legislative process this stands. I'll try to find a link. 

 

[ginger]

According to a tweet from Senator O'Mara,  starting November 9th, any $250 campaign contribution will be matched with $2,300 of state tax dollars.

There's a sliding scale..

12 to 1 for the first $50.00 

9 to 1 for the next $100

8 to 1 for the final $100

The candidate must have $12,000 in contributions from at least 150 residents in their district. This is supposed to be for the 2024 election and funds will be distributed in May 2024.

I asked him who is going to enforce that the TAX PAYER DOLLARS are going to be spent within the confines of election law? 

SELF REPORTING? ARE YOU SERIOUS? I'll be interested in hearing his response. 

 

 

[ginger]

So. Gee, John Cordisco! I'll throw you $250.00, you collect $2,300 and kick back a thousand because I'll be a consultant.

That's how its going to work you know.

[ginger]

Good morning, can't sleep. I guess I really don't get this campaign finance reform.

Kathy Hochul gets $300 g's from one donor. She then awards him over $600,000 in covid 19 test contracts and she hired his daughter. The NY Post is stating he charged twice as much for the tests as NewYorks other vendors.

I thought campaign finance reform was supposed to stop all of this pay to play activity?