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BINGO! PACs and expenditures in the news
Published on June 21, 2010 10:40 AM
Category: Disclosure, Political Committees & 527s
The Washington Post reports that the Philip A. Hart Democratic Club takes in about $2 million a year in receipts, but donated just $500 to a candidate. Instead, the committee seems to be mostly devoted to the great game of bingo. One wonders what their tax returns look like.
In any case, the larger issue of how PACs can be used for the profit of insiders is something I wrote about in a chapter of this terrific book, which you should all go out and purchase immediately and make Jack Citrin a happy man. It is odd that the conventional reformer's attention is drawn to the identification of donors and the identification of how groups spent their own money, yet not as drawn to the use of money by candidates and political committees.
Don't get me wrong—most PAC managers and treasurers are honest and dutiful fiduciaries. But because of the complexity of the law, and the fact that managing the money tends to be less fun that roaming around D.C. slapping backs, these folks can toil unsupervised, and occasionally succumb to temptation. Or can use the PAC form to employ their family and friends, where again the fog of complexity makes it hard to see the real purpose of a group—like this Democratic Club.
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