One of the things I’ve always failed to understand is why politicians don’t take the time to understand campaign finance law. It’s a bit confusing, but not that hard once you get down the basics. If you don’t understand it you have two problems. The first is you are likely to make inadvertant mistakes. The second is you are disadvantaged to your opponents.
Party PACs at the state and federal level have looser rules than do other political accounts largely because Parties have a larger role than just a PAC. Pass throughs are used by all six of the major Committees nationally and just as Wahby points out, as long as everyone can do it, it’s not a big deal.
But State Sen. Maida Coleman, committeewoman from Wahby’s ward, the Seventh, suggested it wasn’t so much the method, but the individual supported that irked members.
“I think the issue is due to the candidate and the fact that not all of the body supports that candidate. For instance, Francis Slay,” Coleman said, according to the minutes. “Automatically, this insults half of the organization.”
The whole point of the method is that an individual is supported. It’s just that any individual can be supported using the same method. Hence, it’s neutral and it helps candidates for those of the other half as well. Just another reason I had to take a break before I started to lose all sense of humor about the sad state of leadership for Dems in this state.
I’m sympathetic to McMillan’s concern which is different, but that really is what you should be figuring out as you make your finance plan.