Truth in Campaign Accounting
The Atlanta Journal Constitution has an article today about a nifty political practice.
Apparently there is a "me too" factor in political support. People want to back a winner. Winners have a lot of campaign funds, which attract more campaign funds, and so on.
So what does a cash strapped candidate do? Borrow money and lend it to the campaign.
Three of the four of five candidates for the Republican nomination have each borrowed about $250,000 and then loaned it to their campaign. It isn't spent mind you, it just sits there swelling the perceived contribution total.
Look at all that money in the account! A lot of people must support so and so.
"Asked if the line of credit was a tactic to appear to have more money, [one candidate's campaign manager] sighed.
“'If that’s how it’s perceived, that’s how it’s perceived,' he said. 'It is what it is.'” ("Damn, there goes another scam.") Pesky reporters.
2 comments:
This IS an interesting one. I've heard of candidates lending themselves money and spending it -- heck, I've done that -- but I've never heard of this practice. I can't imagine that it would work here in Illinois because of disclosure requirements -- both amounts and sources must be provided....
Hey Curmudgeon,
I'm sure our disclosure laws are about the same. Our guys were just hoping that media wouldn't pick up on the fact that they were cooking the books to make it look like they had received more donations than they had.
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