Once again, Republicans demonstrate that they are The Party of Fiscal Responsibility (via Publicola):
The State elections commission has fined the Washington State Republican Party $6,700 for campaign violations during the 2010 state senate elections.
…Republicans were late to report a $60,000 contribution to state senate candidate Sen. Steve Litzow (R-41, Mercer Island) […] and late to report a nearly $10,000 contribution to state senate Republican candidate Marty McClendon.
The GOP also was late to report a batch of contributions it received from its campaign committees totaling $378,000 as well as contributions from companies including Microsoft and Premera Blue Cross totaling over $100,000.
Frankly, I’m happy Republicans have a reputation for something positive. I mean, if they lost that cred, today’s Republicans would just look like a pitchfork- and torch-wielding angry mob on some kind of teabag-infused witch hunt for Jebus.
What? The orb isn’t here yet?
As usual, the candidate and their supporters dump money in, either just after the last reporting period, or the candidates don’t report it at all. The public doesn’t know who’s paying for those expensive TV ads and color mailers, many of which are engaged in “negative campaigning” designed to smear the opposing candidate without leaving him time to mount an effective response before the election.
And also as usual, the Elections Commission takes the better part of a year to investigate and render a decision and fine, which is a small fraction of the amounts involved. It is little more than the “cost of doing business” to the campaign. It will be reduced further as the decision is appealed, and eventually, by the time the reduced fine is paid, nobody will even remember the ads which the money sponsored, or sometimes even the name of the candidate the money supported.
Clearly, we need a better way of doing things.
Currently the state requires all child support to be paid through a state agency, which reduces the number of disputes when the mother says “he never pays”, and he says “yes I did, you just lost the check”.
Maybe we would require that all political donations go through a central office as well – the campaign doesn’t get the money until it’s source is verified as to the donar’s identity and whether he can legally contribute that amount.
@2. rhp6033 spews:
Maybe we would require that all political donations go through a central office as well – the campaign doesn’t get the money until it’s source is verified as to the donar’s (sic) identity and whether he can legally contribute that amount.
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Of course that should be done, have you ever wondered why Dims don’t propose that? Maybe the Nutty Professor can tell us after he finds those cross-cultural studies he misplaced;
“How Rob McKenna is like Santorum
by Darryl, 06/08/2011, 5:56 PM
For what it is worth, the American Anthropological Association—you know, the folks who study humans and their cultures, cross-culturally and historically—take exception to both Santorum’s and McKenna’s narrow, conservative view of marriage and family:
The results of more than a century of anthropological research on households, kinship relationships, and families, across cultures and through time, provide no support whatsoever for the view that either civilization or viable social orders depend upon marriage as an exclusively heterosexual institution. Rather, anthropological research supports the conclusion that a vast array of family types, including families built upon same-sex partnerships, can contribute to stable and humane societies.”
So Professor, show us those cross-cultural studies that support same-sex marriage, you must have numerous examples of Asian and African cultures where same-sex marriage is legal. It couldn’t possibly be limited to Western liberalism, could it? You wouldn’t falsify the research, would you?