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View Full Version : Donations/contributions - questions.


wetibbe
11-30-2009, 05:15 AM
#1. In another County in my state, that is not contiguous with my county, there is a young State Assemblyman who has been doing a good job of opposing illegal immigration. I have been to several of his rallys and meetings and supported him over the past few years..

He decided to run for Congress in his district and sent out massive and repeated requests for contributions which all politicians do. I sent money several times when I really should have saved it or spent it on something more appropriate for family or home. Yesterday I received an E-mail that he is dropping out of the race !!! He redirected and decided to run for the State Senate instead. I'm pretty sure he had little choice. He pretty well drained everyone with incessant pleas for money. It was just too much. Practically every donor/supporter was probably tapped out. I know I was, I just stopped giving. He probably didn't make his goals and lacked the funds to continue.

So what will he do with the money ? Possibly use it to run for the Senate ??

#2. Back when Hillary Clinton was running for her Senate seat, NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani ran against her. He also asked me for money which I sent more than once. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer and dropped out of the race. But he had $9 million in contributions in his war chest !

So what did he do with the money ? He never ran for another public office.

#3. Alipac is reported to have collected $666,000 in contributions on behalf of Lou Dobbs for a Senate or Presidential run. Dobbs left CNN - flipped ( after his house was shot at ) and is now an amigo of the illegals espousing a plethora of goodies for them.

So what will they do with the money ?

#4. One of the Minute Men apparently mortgaged his house and donated $110,000 worth of steel to the Simcox fence. When the fence didn't materialize as expected the donor sued for a variety of causes. Then suddenly dropped the suit.

So what did they do with the money. In that case the caging company and an intermediate management team skimmed off most of it for various expenses that had nothing to do with the fence. The fence never got built, Simcox took a hike and the Minuteman website forum folded.

Lesson to be learned. When you donate, or contribute, for these causes keep in mind that you have essentially gifted it and you do not have any control, voice or power to say, or require, how it is dispositioned or spent. There is no practical recourse. It's just GONE !

Ayatollahgondola
11-30-2009, 07:03 AM
Yes, that's why they are called donations instead of loans or payments. Once you give it, it's theirs to use for the stated purpose, however ambiguously that may have been stated to begin with. But fraud is another matter entirely. If you donated to a campaign, and you can prove that the solicitation was fraudulent at the core, you stand a chance of getting a judgement, however that might prove futile monetarily. But as a donor, you are an affected class that at least has the right to sue, as in the case of the guy on Simcox's fence you mentioned. I don't know why he dropped the suit, but he may have settled it in silence. You could go to the courthouse and review the files as I have encouraged everyone else to do through one of our affiliated websites:

http://publicdocumentdistributors.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19

It is in the courthouse records you often find the backgrounds on organizations and individuals that may guide your actions on entering into any transactions with them in the future.

On the issues of campaign funds:
Both state and federal laws restrict the use of the funds by amount or transaction. It's a convoluted mess of words designed to confound, confuse and delay, enforced by a body that is usually beholden to the same system that has the greatest interest in keeping the money flowing. Once in a while someone gets a fine several years after the deed, and then some funds get paid from their account to the FPPC or whatever passes for it in that state. But inevitably, it is your donations that are used to pay the fines, adding insult to injury.
Hope all that helps.....;)

Jeanfromfillmore
11-30-2009, 12:12 PM
#3. Alipac is reported to have collected $666,000 in contributions on behalf of Lou Dobbs for a Senate or Presidential run. Dobbs left CNN - flipped ( after his house was shot at ) and is now an amigo of the illegals espousing a plethora of goodies for them.

So what will they do with the money ?

The money was not given, it was pledged, in other words 'promised' if Dobbs were to run for office.. After the interview with the Spanish channel the pledges/promises and the website taken down. The pledges were forgiven/forgotten and not expected to be honored or collected.

Ayatollahgondola
11-30-2009, 06:14 PM
Lesson to be learned. When you donate, or contribute, for these causes keep in mind that you have essentially gifted it and you do not have any control, voice or power to say, or require, how it is dispositioned or spent. There is no practical recourse. It's just GONE !

I should have added here that there are certainly good entities that are worthy of your support. Politicians are always a debatable case, but we've seen there are decent ones alive out there. It's getting harder for economic piss ants like the general public to influence the candidate landscape out there with donations due to the volumes of support coming from corporate giants, unions, and other large forces. But that's generally for the bigger races like president, large constituent Senate, Governor and some congressional. We can still make an impact on local and smaller constituency statewide or congressional races, and it would not benefit us to abandon supporting the good candidates. Just do the research first, and then also get involved with the campaigns. You learn a lot more by the way their campaigns are managed if you are in the bullpen somehow, even if it's waterboy.

Ayatollahgondola
12-01-2009, 12:05 AM
Very coincidental here:

FPPC fines CalPERS official Valdes

http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/2360269.html

The Fair Political Practices Commission said it has reached a settlement with Valdes and Billy Joe Hughes, treasurer of the Valdes campaign, following an audit and investigation into campaign contributions that Valdes received in late 2005. Details were posted on the FPPC's Web site, but the five-member FPPC panel must still approve the agreement and proposed fine during a Dec. 10 meeting

Roman Porter, FPPC executive director, said Valdes could, under current state law, use campaign funds to pay any eventual fine.

OK, so 4 years, (a whole term for many politicians) and 12,000 dollar fine that will be paid by money other than his, and he suffers no real consequence for cheating his way into office, right?
The lesson here is that political crime pays.

We need to change this law immediately to include mandatory public service in the way of cleaning freeways like any other peon would get for gaming the system.