Republican Trash Talk or Democratic Connivery? Introduction and Campaign Finance Laws

I know what I am writing has already occurred and has probably been forgotten. However, I want to bring the topic back into discussion because it has a point to prove and should not be buried away as a forgettable memory. I know most of my followers or classmates have written about more current events. However, I believe we can view things more clearly in retrospect.

During this election process, President Barack Obama has been accused by many as using the Internet in both a good and bad way. In fact, about a decade ago, candidates did not see much use in using the Internet as a helpful tool for their campaigns. Today, Obama’s campaign—as compared to Senator John McCain’s—has come the closest to achieving the Holy Grail of politics on the Internet—converting online enthusiasm to offline action. Even so, Obama and his campaign are found guilty in the eyes of a few Republicans, Republican newspapers and websites, and gullible bloggers. The accusation is that President Obama engaged in Internet fraud during his presidential campaign. According to several reports, Obama’s campaign did not undertake the necessary security measures to shield themselves from illegal online contributions. This supposed mistake from Obama’s campaign is one that deserves further scrutiny because it presents to the political arena two possible outcomes: 1) another form of Republican trash talk; or 2) a possible attempt from Democrats to play dirty.

The best way to start this discussion is to address the most important federal laws pertaining to campaign contributions, and then to address how others think Pres. Obama’s campaign has violated these rules.

After McCain and Feingold established the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act in 2002 (BCRA), the regulation of the financing behind political campaigns became far stricter than the laws constituted by the Federal Election Campaign Act in 1971. For instance, under BCRA, federal law does not require campaigns to disclose any background information of those donors who have given less than $200. However, it does require that campaigns calculate running totals for each contributor, and disclose their information when their contributions pass the $200 mark. In addition, the Federal Election Commission (FEC), which was created under the Federal Election Campaign Act, requires all campaigns to reimburse any contribution that has exceeded the limit. Under campaign finance laws, an individual is allowed to contribute $2,300 to a candidate in both the primary and general elections, for a total of $4,600. When a donor exceeds the limit in a primary, the campaign has the capability of “redesignating” the excess amount over to the general election on its books. Furthermore, campaigns are not permitted to receive any contribution from a foreign institution or individual. In other words, no campaign is allowed to accept any donation from a non-U.S. citizen and a non-U.S. based corporation or institution. This is considered by many campaign financers to be the most important campaign finance law.

Sources:

1) Kenneth R. Timmerman-http://www.newsmax.com/timmerman/obama_fundraising_illegal/ 2008/09/29/135718.html
2) Matthew Mosk-http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/ 10/28/ar2008102803413_pf.html