Freud's Believe It or Not

3 thoughts on “Freud’s Believe It or Not”

1. The actual term is “federal office,” not “national office.” That makes it sound like the voter guide you got was prepared by an amateur who is going out of his or her way to be conservative so as not to get in trouble.

   It’s true that mixing federal and state money can be tricky because of the differing campaign finance laws. But there are specific exemptions for slate cards and other such GOTV items that your county party should look into.

   They can always call the compliance officer at the state party for guidance.

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   1. In the case of the 2010 voter guide (lower case) in question, the exact words were and still are:

      “Campaign finance rules prohibit listing the candidates for National office,” followed by a list of federal (just between you and me) offices (Senate and House) on the ballot, but not the names of the party’s nominees. (And yes, the N in National was capitalized.)

      Was this a GOTV effort? Hard to say, since the entire effort was aimed at naming names, but also one page dedicated to How-to-Vote, all with the intent, no doubt. of getting the proletariat to come-‘n’-vote-for-us.

      Whatever the regulations, whatever comingling (with or without a hyphen) of funds (sounds salacious; no wonder it’s illegal), bottom line is that a county political party chair felt that the party could not, is not, maybe possibly conceivably might not, be “allowed” to tell voters the names of its candidates for any and every office, not even Chief Warden.

      Fuggedabout whether this particular collection of rubbish was worth the wear and tear on the distributor’s sneakers. Seems entirely obvious that there are no limits of any sort on campaign financing, so sayeth the Supremes. Let the good times roll–money talks, everyone else walks. Brother, can you spare $10,000?

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      1. But keep separate checking accounts.

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