Wah! Republican crybabies

Local, Politics, Virginia 3 Minutes

Cry BabiesRecognize this picture? You should. It’s the new logo of The Republican Party of Virginia™

You see, every year, Republicans in the General Assembly have a hissy fit about the Jefferson Jackson dinner, because it occurs during the General Assembly session.  The event is a fundraiser for the Democratic Party of Virginia and the funds are used to – gasp! – support Democratic candidates for office.  Since members of the GA benefit from this, the Republicans feel like the Democrats shouldn’t be holding the event.

Let’s look at the law, shall we?

§ 24.2-954. Campaign fundraising; legislative sessions; penalties.

A. No member of the General Assembly or statewide official and no campaign committee of a member of the General Assembly or statewide official shall solicit or accept a contribution for the campaign committee of any member of the General Assembly or statewide official, or for any political committee, from any person or political committee on and after the first day of a regular session of the General Assembly through adjournment sine die of that session.

So if I read this correctly, the only people prohibited from fundraising during the session are General Assembly members or statewide officials. Not political parties or PACs unassociated with GA members or statewide officials. These groups are free to raise as much money during session as they want to.  There’s no rule that I can find that says that if the PAC gives their money to GA members or statewide officials they are likewise prohibited. So if the RPV wants to hold its Advance during the GA session, have at it.

What got me going on this is that the Republican water carriers, aka blogs, got a memo Wednesday about next week’s Farm Team statewide meeting. Nevermind that the details of the event were posted on The Farm Team blog ten days ago. Nevermind that The Farm Team is carried on both blog aggregators.  No, it took a memo to alert them that the event was taking place.  The water carriers just picked up the RSVP link and ran with it, all carrying the “Democrats are holding a fundraiser during session” meme.

Acting like giddy children, they snickered at the use of the term “heifer” as one of the contribution levels.  Of course, because they never bothered to look at The Farm Team blog, they had no clue as to the context.

But that wasn’t the worst of it. There was the insinuation that ActBlue, the clearinghouse used for the RSVPs, was somehow being used to skirt the fundraising laws. Um, doesn’t anybody know how third party collection situations work? It doesn’t change the financial reporting requirements.  The donor information still has to be reported. So how that could be doing “their dirty work,” as one blogger said (get your own link) I have no idea.

And then there were the bloggers linking to the announcement of The Women’s Caucus breakfast being held in conjunction with the JJ. Again, had they bothered to actually read anything, it should have dawned on them that The Women’s Caucus and The Farm Team can’t possibly be the same organization. I mean – The Farm Team was just organized last fall, so how could it be holding the third annual breakfast?

This is one of those times when I think bloggers are as dumb as the rest of the world thinks they are.

What’s sad is that two bloggers I have heretofore had respect for helped to perpetrate this.  (The rest just acted like the echo chamber the blogosphere has become.) To say they have fallen a few pegs in my eyes would be an understatement.

All of this because The Republican Party of Virginia™ is acting like a two-year-old who can’t get his way. Go ahead, have your own fundraiser during session. The rules allow it. And take this with you.

baby_pacifier

Published

16 thoughts on “Wah! Republican crybabies”

  1. As a side question: Wasn’t there a change to the way that ActBlue (or RedStorm, for that matter) contributions were handled just last year?

    Before, ActBlue (or Redstorm) would show an individual contribution on their rolls and the final recipient would only show show a contribution from ActBlue (or Redstorm), not the original donor.

    I think they changed that last year so it would show up as something like “John Doe via ActBlue”.

  2. I find it interesting that many of the Democratic Members of the House of Delegates voted for this bill just to be able to say the voted for campaign finance reform, however, they will again attend the JJ event. There is something to be said for walking the walk after talking the talk. Politics a usual!

  4. I think that this is one of the more ridiculous things the Republicans have to whine about! But this is their last year in the majority in the HOuse so let them cry, whine and complain. It comes so natural for them!

  7. Its not as simple as it seems folks

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/21/AR2009012103539.html?hpid=moreheadlines

    “Under Virginia law, Kaine is prohibited from raising money for himself or state political committees during the 45-day legislative session, which began Jan. 14. Traditionally, Virginia governors also do not raise money at the governor’s mansion, although no law prohibits it, said David Allen, manager of the Virginia State Board of Elections.”

    I’m not a lawyer but to me it appears that if an elected official makes an appearance at an event designed to raise money during the legislative session you are walking a tightrope in terms of the law.

    I think this tightrope is why Kaine opted out of the event described in the post.

    Vivain who is noramlly very even-handed to her credit has some bias on this because she is directly involved/strong supporter of the group in question.

    Both sides need to calm down. We need some lawyers to figure this out.

    Also the letter and intent of the law are important. As comment 2 said people voted for this and are now trying to twist it. You can’t have it both ways folks.

  8. Timothy – I have not used ActBlue personally so I cannot comment on that. But I have used Click N Pledge, which has been around a lot longer. They provide a list of all of the contributor information necessary to complete the financial disclosure forms. Perhaps some of the candidates were not properly getting the information from ActBlue, but that shouldn’t be the way it was handled.

    NM – my problem was – and is – that it took a memo (likely from the RPV) to pass around information that was readily available on TFT website (not to mention that the link to the RSVP page on ActBlue has been in my sidebar!) and that the blogs responded like lapdogs in publishing half-truths and outright incorrect information.

    Was the RSVP page poorly worded? Probably. The post on TFT website I thought was much clearer. The statewide meeting of TFT was not designed as a fundraiser. It was the third in a series. That’s it.

  9. Why can’t they just move the event so that it does not coincide with the GA session? Then there would be no appearance of impropriety.

  10. this issue is too close to you to have a meaningful discussion

    I will say there are too many R bloggers that will repeat and when you say jump respond with how high. There are also many D bloggers that do the same thing.

    There are five blogs that I read regularly and yours is one of them.

    You should start following too conservative if you are looking for another good R blog. I agree BD has been going downhill as of late.

  11. I can’t believe a politician would actually go to a political event!!
    The JJ raises money for the Va Dems, not the actual candidates.
    That is what I see.

  13. NMM – I know I’m close to it. And I agree that too many blogs on both sides respond as you say. Also, I have been reading TC. It gets interesting over there.

    Timothy – ah, yes. I remember that bill now that you mention it. I guess there had been an issue with ActBlue, although I have no idea why they did it that way and why no one complained. As I said, I’ve used Click N Pledge since 2005 and it always provided the donor information.

    AEM – as for moving the JJ – you’d have to ask someone who has been going longer than I for a definitive answer on that.

Comments are closed.