Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!ucla-cs!zen!ucbvax!hplabs!hplabsc!taylor From: andy@rocky.stanford.edu (Andy Freeman) Newsgroups: comp.society Subject: Re: The Impact of Inventions Message-ID: <2174@hplabsc.HP.COM> Date: Mon, 6-Jul-87 17:19:44 EDT Article-I.D.: hplabsc.2174 Posted: Mon Jul 6 17:19:44 1987 Date-Received: Wed, 8-Jul-87 00:56:31 EDT References: <2041@hplabsc.HP.COM> Sender: taylor@hplabsc.HP.COM Distribution: world Organization: Stanford University Computer Science Department Lines: 31 Approved: taylor@hplabs Hugh Daniel wrote: > Wonderful idea, I knew it had to have been tried, and sure enough it has. >Seems that if you tell candidate X not to accept money from outside his/her >district that the folks from the outside just start their own group to get >their candidate elected. Seems that they have this first amendment right >to say what they want. They can say whatever they want. If it is support the rule counts it as a contribution even if the candidate doesn't control it. The penalty for excessive outside contributions is that the candidate loses the election. (If the winner doesn't break the rule, everything is fine, otherwise a special election, with none of the candidates who cheated the first time, is held. If an official is found guilty of breaking the rule after he's seated, he's out.) If it's a first offense, we won't ban him/her from running for that office during the next regular election. I'll bet that outsiders won't insist on their right to dump their candidate. They do have this right since they're not penalized; the candidate is. There are problems with deciding who to charge an external contribution to. (Think about smear campaigns.) There are also problems with valuing non-monetary contributions. Mandatory public disclosure of contribution sources (outside district percentages) might be adequate if done before the election. The trick is to prohibit post-election contributions. One way is to make campaign debts uncollectable (at least after the election). Only fools will give credit to candidates under those circumstances. -andy