Campaign Finance

<h4>“You work for the banks, they pay you, and yet you’re supposed to
represent the public interest. ... Consultants have a financial
incentive to do things to attract repeat business.”</h4><br>

We often hear elected officials saying, "I can't be bought at any
price." The assumption behind this statement is that there is no
amount of money, no job offer, nothing that will make the elected
official act or vote any way than the way he otherwise intends to
act or vote, that he cannot be influenced.<br>
<br>
In a discussion forum I follow, journalist
Ben Adler pointed out that there might actually be different prices
for different acts. Sometimes elected officials accept gifts or

Yesterday, <a href="http://www.kcet.org/news/ballotbrief/campaign-finance/los-angeles-2013-…; target="”_blank”">Los
Angeles' KCET-TV put up a database on it website</a> to show who's
giving to candidates in the current city and school board elections. You can see which city officials, business
people, and others are giving, who's getting contributions from

Intimidation is, I believe, the worst kind of ethical misconduct in
government, because (1) it limits or changes participation of
people in the democratic
process, (2) it is emotionally damaging, and (3) it enables all
sorts of ethical misconduct. Intimidation is a fundamental form of
misuse of power and position. (For more about

<br>Read all about it! Local government ethics becomes a presidential
campaign issue! Yes, you heard that right. <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57520009-503544/romney-teacher-c…; target="”_blank”">According
to CBS News</a>, this very day presidential candidate Mitt Romney
said "the person sitting across the table from [a teachers union]

In this year of endless talk about voter fraud, there is not all
that much talk about one area of fraud that has actually been proven
to exist, and to make a difference:  absentee ballot fraud. This kind of fraud even comes
with its own profession, the absentee ballot broker (boletera in
southern Florida).<br>
<br>
Boleteras are hired by local campaigns to go into nursing homes,
assisted living facilities, and sometimes homes to help people fill
out absentee ballots. The question is, how much help do they give? A

Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the Watergate break-in. For
those too young to remember, President Nixon's re-election campaign
had people break in to the Democratic National Committee's offices
in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20120617/EDIT07/306179972/1021/ED…; target="”_blank”">an

<a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/campaign-spending-shows-political-tie…; target="”_blank”">ProPublica
ran an excellent article yesterday</a> by Kim Barker and Al Shaw
about campaign, PAC, and Super PAC coordination and self-dealing,
primarily at the presidential level. What is so special about the
article is that it follows the money to where it is being spent.

A good followup to <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/lessig-effects-elected-officials-depe…; target="”_blank”">my
last blog post</a>, on Lawrence Lessig's book, is <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7387331n&tag=contentMain;cbsCaro…; target="”_blank”">what

Lawrence Lessig's excellent new book <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=pOd9J3vvWhkC&printsec=frontcover#v=one…; target="”_blank”"><b>Republic,