Open Secrets looks discovers that MLB spends more money on New York politicians than than those from Pennsylvania. That doesn’t surprise me much, as New York sends ten more representatives to Congress than the Keystone State.
By the way, my idea for campaign finance reform is to allow gifts to only once candidate per election per race, and only to those candidates that will represent you. For example, during a year in which I had could participate in House, Senate and Presidential elections, I could give during the primaries, and again during the general election. What I couldn’t do is spread the money around to multiple candidates to cover my bets.
In the case of corporations and PACs, especially ones that span many states, they would have to pick one candidate in one of the areas where they have a base, a factory or corporate office. So if they are in 20 states, they could only donate to one representative, and he/she would have to be from the district where the plant/office is located. (So Dunder-Miflin could give money to a rep from Scranton, but not one from Philadelphia.)
Of course, all this would go into a database so anyone could search and find out who was donating how much to whom.
Under this plan, MLB could still give money to both of a state’s senators, but they would be cut down to one or two representatives.
Update: While MLB is busy buying votes, the players are trying to take away the right to vote from other union members.
Posted by David Pinto at 1:16 pm | Baseball | Permalink | 3 Comments
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October 28th, 2009 @ 2:39 pm
This idea is fairly old, and is mostly proposed by right-wing types as a substitute for stronger campaign finance reform.
I think it should be included as part of a reform package. Once thing I learned recently is that small state Senators have problems raising enough campaign cash from within their states. So they become more dependent than big state Senators for funds from national corporations and lobbies. That is why you get a Senator from Maine going to the mat for the insurance industry, against the apparent wishes of her constituents (according to polls). She doesn’t really represent Maine, she represents Blue Cross Blue Shield.
Other countries limit campaign expenditures, which is why they are able to run two month election campaigns, not the fourteen months that has become the norm in the US. You are pretty much limited to two months for most of your campaign spending. This allows people who have normal jobs to run for office. However, the Supreme Court here has ruled out that solution.
October 28th, 2009 @ 3:43 pm
“the players are trying to take away the right to vote from other union members.”
What? Card check would allow for secret ballots if requested by the majority who sign up for union representation.
October 28th, 2009 @ 4:39 pm
Loving The Office reference.
Very interesting post though. A lot of things intro’d to me that I didn’t think of.