The campaign's offer is good for the first 50,000 donors — and is an unconventional bid to meet the fundraising thresholds required to be onstage for next month's Republican primary debate.... To participate in the debate, candidates must have at least 40,000 donors. They also have to bring in donations from 200 or more donors in at least 20 states.
The rules create "some unusual incentives" for quickly building a wide donor base, Nick Bauroth, who chairs the political science department at North Dakota State University.... "This offer could cost Burgum up to a million dollars, but well worth it if he gets on the main stage" at the debate....
"My immediate reaction to this scheme is a concern that it violates the federal prohibition on straw donors," Michael S. Kang, a professor at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, told NPR. "It's illegal to reimburse another person for their campaign contribution. Giving a donor a $20 gift card for donating seems a bit like that.... Burgum is competing within the Republican primary and is just trying to game the debate qualification rules.... The scheme does test the limits of current law."
The FEC wouldn't respond to the question whether it's illegal. Presumably, Burgum checked the law carefully before making this offer. If not, he's an awful candidate. If he did, good for him. I hope it gets him on the stage. But I think if this works, the GOP, going forward, should change the rules about qualifying for the debate. Burgum is a billionaire, able to buy his way onto the stage. In the future, the candidates for President will all be billionaires.... nothing but Connor Roys....
Sidenote: Congratulations to every single actor in that clip (except the shadowy female figure in the background) for snagging an Emmy nomination today. See "Fully 14 Succession Actors Are Nominated for Emmys. This Is Who Should Win. Get ready for some Roy vs. Roy action. Again" (Slate).
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30 comments:
What a terrible script! And I should know. I couldn’t even qualify in the Nebraska writers of the Omaha Film Festival.
Seriously, not good at all and I presume the best stuff is in the trailer.
Fuck this Boomer. Throw his ass in prison for bribery.
NPR has bern opposing Free Speech and conservatives for decades. Fuck’em.
The law against straw donors is due to the fact that such setups are a way evade the campaign donation limit for individuals and organizations. Burgum is already free to donate as much of his own money as he wishes to his own campaign, so him "reimbursing" individuals 20 for 1 would seem to ok to me at a first glance. The RNC, though, is very free to not count his donors for purposes for getting an invite to the debate.
Biden and his son crafted deals with foreign nations using Joe's status as VP to enrich themselves.
Is that legal?
Don’t care, caught 22” speck today and a 30” red on the same 5” soft plastic. Murica.
"In the future, the candidates for President will all be billionaires.... nothing but Connor Roys...."
indeed.
"Is that legal?"
Right now, he's not participating in an election for a government office (it could be argued). He's running within the Republican party for their nomination. Perhaps the law doesn't apply.
Give $$$ to a billionaire? I think not.
There are three categories of human that I decided at a young age never to give a nickel to if I had a choice--
Preachers
Politicians
Athletes
I've never met or heard of one who has less money than I do, needs it the way I do, or will use it as wisely as I do.
This sounds shady as shit. If he can’t generate enough interest then he stays off the stage in August and works hard to get on the next time.
And if he fails again so be it.
Ah, money. The Mother's Milk of politics. Then, now, and forever.
I for one am shocked---shocked, do you hear!---that politicians are gaming the system!
The 40000 donors was chosen because it represents a broad base of support. Buying "Donors" just proves you have dont have one.
BTW, everything I've seen shows Burgrum would have nothing of interest to say. He's your typical Big-Business Republican who wants to stop all this bickering and heated rhetoric. We need pragmatic solutions and we need to unite the country behind a platform of...zzzzzzz.
He's Mitt Romney with a Fargo accent.
My sponsor told he was smitten by RFK Jr interview at Lex’s podcast. Sent me a link, now I have to listen to it. I mean I don’t have to but he told me he might vote for him. This could come up again in conversaciones.
So, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (HUGE volunteer organization) has a rule that if you campaign for Director 3 times and fail, you can never try again.
Maybe this is worth considering.
https://www.insidepoliticallaw.com/2020/09/11/avoiding-straw-donor-issues/
52 USC 30122
I will give one dollar to every donor who sends me twenty dollars.
"This sounds shady as shit. If he can’t generate enough interest then he stays off the stage in August and works hard to get on the next time.
And if he fails again so be it."
He only needs to play the game by the rules. The GOP made rules about who qualifies. We can see a problem with the rules, but that's a reason for changing them, not for excluding him when he qualified according to the rules.
What if his campaign gave a party for contributors that cost $5 a person and you only had to contribute $1 to get an invitation? Isn't it the same as that?
We've read in the past of things done to acquire contributions, where it cost much more to get the contribution than the contribution was worth.
Didn't Lightbringer turn off credit card verification to allow individuals to exceed limits, while presenting as multitudes of small donors?
Any system with loopholes will be exploited. This is a universal rule that applies to taxes and politics and natural selection and everything else.
Hmm, maybe I can win an Olympic gold medal by identifying as a woman?
Hmm, maybe I can win an election by having people 'harvest' votes from those unlikely to vote?
Great, another Michael Bloomberg, trying to buy his way into office.
everything I've seen shows Burgrum would have nothing of interest to say.
i get Burgum's ads Everytime i open you tube..
WHY is he running? His basic gist seems to be:
*Are You a Republican?
*Vote for me, so that your vote is WASTED
*Because, after all, i'm not a real person, i'm a Billionaire
a vote for Burgum is a vote for Biden
These are GOP rules - right?
He is playing by the rules.
Can't quite imagine which idiot would donate to a candidate they wouldn't otherwise donate to, because it only costs them 19/20 as much. Nope.
"$20 to me from you for every $1 to you?"
Yeah, I'll take that deal.
"Krusty, you put your burger joint out here on an oil rig. You're losing money on every sale, of which there are very few."
Presumably, Burgum checked the law carefully before making this offer. If not, he's an awful candidate.
Burgam's payment plan is crude. Even if it gets him on the debate stage, now he's wide open to ridicule. He looks sketchy and shady, like he's literally trying to buy his way into office.
Contrast Vivek, who also has an out-of-the-box fund-raising scheme.
Vivek is getting people to sign up to fund raise for him, keeping part of the money they raise.
Vivek's idea is a novel idea, but also it's clearly legal. Charities have long allowed fund-raisers to keep part of the money they collect. And it's quite common in the political realm, too, with "bundlers" making millions of dollars.
Ramaswamy says his new plan is actually an attack on the “disgusting” status quo where a “small oligopoly of political fundraisers” make an “ungodly” amount of money doing what they do.
I think candidates very well might start copying this move. It's very smart capitalism and way better for our democracy than having billionaires pay for everything.
As has already been pointed out, similar tactics were used in democrat campaigns. Why not now?
Narr said...
Give $$$ to a billionaire? I think not.
There are three categories of human that I decided at a young age never to give a nickel to if I had a choice--
Preachers
Politicians
Athletes
I've never met or heard of one who has less money than I do, needs it the way I do, or will use it as wisely as I do.
Then you haven’t known many traveling country preachers. Most spend their own money on gas to travel between multiple tiny rural churches so somebody shows up at least once a month for the rural elderly. The collection plates rarely cover their expenses plus keeping the lights on in the churches and they usually have day jobs during the week. God bless them. Truly doing His work.
"Then you haven't known many traveling country preachers."
None, I suspect.
Candidates can also qualify for payments from the federal election matching fund, if they raise over $5,000 in each of 20 states (that is, over $100,000). So a candidate could promise two times the donation if the donor created some legitimate work product for the candidate (say a white paper on a certain policy topic, or an idea for a tv ad). I don't see how this could be illegal.
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