A suitable addition to your critical thinking list for the upcoming elections is:
Dollars spent, per likely voter, by each party for races that either think are critical.
It is a frighteningly high value. One result is that most of the money is being spent, by far, in the swing states.
I also noticed that in one PAC list that all the candidates were receiving MUCH MORE money from out-of-state donors than from the actual voters in that state. I consider that to be a failure of our democratic system. We already provide equal weight to each voter, no matter the voter’s substantive knowledge, but we now have overwhelming weight being given to out-of-state non-voters/contributors.
I also have tried, but failed, to find out the set of sources that the federal government considers when it comes up with the numbers of dollars that it considers have been spent (or in holding) by each candidate. Can you address that? (For example, can it be claimed that the sum of any gifts from any Party that exceeds $100 is akin to an offered bribe? I personally don’t think so, but SOMETHING needs to be done. As another example, could any sums coming in from outside the State to within-State media require an equal allotment of that sum to the major opponent? That would really stop the faucet.)
I have written up some of this in the past, but I seem to get nothing by the reviewing editors.
You provide a great service, one that is appreciated.
Hi, John.
A suitable addition to your critical thinking list for the upcoming elections is:
Dollars spent, per likely voter, by each party for races that either think are critical.
It is a frighteningly high value. One result is that most of the money is being spent, by far, in the swing states.
I also noticed that in one PAC list that all the candidates were receiving MUCH MORE money from out-of-state donors than from the actual voters in that state. I consider that to be a failure of our democratic system. We already provide equal weight to each voter, no matter the voter’s substantive knowledge, but we now have overwhelming weight being given to out-of-state non-voters/contributors.
I also have tried, but failed, to find out the set of sources that the federal government considers when it comes up with the numbers of dollars that it considers have been spent (or in holding) by each candidate. Can you address that? (For example, can it be claimed that the sum of any gifts from any Party that exceeds $100 is akin to an offered bribe? I personally don’t think so, but SOMETHING needs to be done. As another example, could any sums coming in from outside the State to within-State media require an equal allotment of that sum to the major opponent? That would really stop the faucet.)
I have written up some of this in the past, but I seem to get nothing by the reviewing editors.
You provide a great service, one that is appreciated.
Bill Lynch