Sunday, February 26, 2012

Which of the 9 political funding options do you find the most interesting, surprising, or new to you?

From $25 to $10,000,000: A Guide to Political Donations
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/10/17/us/politics/a-guide-to-political-donations.html

25 comments:

Mr. Bretzmann said...

BTW:
1. Practice questions Wednesday after school.
2. Will Romney win one of his home states Tuesday?
3. I'm glad to hear former President Nelson Mandela is at home resting comfortably.

Paige said...

$1,000,000
A wealthy donor, who prefers to remain anonymous, wants to give $1 million to help Herman Cain win the Republican nomination.

This is most interesting to me, as Herman Cain has dropped out..although I'm unsure how recent this article is.

Chris DeWinter said...

The political funding option i fund most interesting is how a gun rights activist could donate $5,000,000 to advance gun issues. I find this interesting because in an age where soft money donations are not supposed to influence politics politicians have still found a way of receiving them.

Jwolf said...

$10,000,000 - A billionaire who wants to help the Democratic party regain control of the House is the most surprising to me. This is because that amount of money goes a long way, and I feel that there are other important issues that the person could spend the money on. $10 billion goes a long way.

J.Mason said...

I think that the $25 and $200 donation from the students is most suprising to me. Most students who are going after a good job, in my mind, dont have the money or more over the time to donate and be involved in a poitical game. Me, going on in school, would not be donating my money as of now and accually spend that money and time to my school work and getting a better job.

aschulist said...

I find the wealthy donor that wanted to give to Herman Cain most interesting. I knew that a person was limited on how much they can give directly to a candidate, so I wasn't surprised that they could not give $1,000,000 to Herman Cain, but I did not know that a person could just start a PAC for a candidate so that they can then give more money to their campaign. It almost seems like cheating the system, but I do think that the limit should be higher than $2,500 so I guess I don't blame anyone for trying to get around it.

Kelly M said...

The political funding option that I find the most interesting is the $25 donation from a student. You'd think that a college student would want to spend their money on somthing other than politics.

Big Al said...

Ron paul and herman cain were the examples for donating... C'mon it is a waste of money and I am certain that herman cain will not fall in line anytime soon. I thought it was intereting how ten million dollars could be donated to a party through a super pac. the pac's really seem to be useless. A super pac has less restrictions and can do all the same things. I was also shocked to read that one third of obamas money came from 200 or less donations. Also Romney will win all, but his actual homes states.

JakobL said...

The most interesting comment for me was: '$25 A college student can afford to give just $25 but wants it to go to the candidate who needs it most.' I don't understand the choice to don't specify to which candidate the money should go. If I would donate money in politics I would give the money to a politician who works the most in my interest and represents myself the most. Another point what's very interesting is the amount of money he spends. 25$ are not much but probably the most he can effort as a college student and therefore he shows much interest in politics and the will to participate in the system.

neve57 said...

The most interestng political in my opinion was the example with the kid that donates to the one that needs it most. That really doesn't make sense because he is basically donating to both parties without knowing which one. I can't imagine doing this with a large sum of money.

sli said...

The political funding option I found most interesting was $25 from the students. Literally students don't have much money, and $25 doesn't really help much. What this $25 actually shows is how much do the students care about politics.

TPassow said...

Most interesting to me would be the college students. The $25 donation surprised me the most, because that donated amount is fairly small compared to normal amounts. To think amount would help is showing how much they cared about their political influence.

KKotecki said...

The political funding option that shocked me the most was the college student giving $200 to Ron Paul's campaign. This surprised me because a college student has so many expenses. When college books alone cost hundreds of dollars, it shocks me why a college student would want to give that much to a campaign in the primaries. I could see if it was later and Ron Paul was running against President Obama, but when he hasn't even become the Republican nominee yet that is a lot of money to be spending.

Jegan said...

As a big money guy I have to go with the big money option the 10 mill. And with that kind of donation you could do some real work for the party. Also you may be able to call in a favor or two after dishing out that much cash.

ANichols said...

In my opinion, I find that the $200 funding to Ron Paul from a college student was most surprising and intresting to me. First off, many college students are in debt and simply do not have the money to help fund a candidate. To be honest, I think that a majority (not plurality) would never spend $200 on this. Furthermore, if a college student did have A LOT of money, I would think that supporting the political campaign would be one of the last things that comes to their mind. Also, in the end they may just be throwing away the $200 because Ron Paul may not even be the Republican nominee. Overall, I was rather suprised by this type of donation especailly because of the financial position that most college students are in.

jryan said...

The 10,000,000 dollar political funding option interested me the most since I find it hard to believe any billionare in his or her right mind would donate that much money just to attempt to keep the democrats in power. In the end it won't matter since the power struggle will be decided after the next presidential elections. This money they are giving should be used for other purposes like say lowering our deficiet.

Sfrasher said...

The most interesting political funding option, in my opinion, was the money donated from the college student. It surprised me because of a couple reasons. One being that the amount was so high for a college student. The other was because that college kids are notoriously known for being “broke”. Obviously the college student that donated this really felt in his/her heart that they really wanted this candidate to win, and that they follow politics. Not many college students would “fork over” money as it is, and not a lot would do so supporting a political campaign. I am glad to see that the average college student is making a difference on the political spectrum.

Anonymous said...

The 10,000,000 suprises me the most. Not the amount necessarily but because Super PACS can accept unlimited donations it seems to me that PAC's then become completely irrelevent

jboyle said...

The political funding option that surprised me the most was the $1,000,000 donation to Herman Cain. This surprised me the most due to the fact that he is no longer in the race.

APrichard said...

The political funding option i found surprising was the methods of the ardent supporter of gun rights donating 5,000,000 to the campaign. The fact that the supporter can essentially bribe the candidate with funding to include policy that the individual donating feels right. Also the fact that such an extent of work to donate this money to the candidate brings us to face that politics is not as clean as it appears.

tFugarino said...

The most surprising issue to me was the college student donating money. This is surprising because most college students do not think about spending their money towards politics.

Anonymous said...

I think that the billionaire offering $10,000,000 to help the Democrats gain control again is the most surprising. People always say that money should not be buying its way into politics. This donation option is doing just that. Money should not be the sole governing factor in deciding who or what party is elected or stays elected. How about we think of what that person can do for the good of his/her country. If the best candidate for the interest of the country is going to cost a lot of money, so be it. But if we have a much less rich candidate who can bring more to the table than anyone else, he/she should be able to at least have a fighting chance.

jblommel said...

I find that giving to 501(c)(4) organizations is the most surprising political funding option. These organizations need to be classified as "nonprofit" and have their major goal be non political, but it is not difficult for organizations to be registered that way. Also, I find it interesting that the organization can spend the money in any way that they see fit, and not disclose the donors name. This would give the donor almost no control over what the money went to.

Nick Berry said...

I think the national chain restaurant giving $1,000,000+ is most interesting. I wonder if their interest is to persuade politicians with money, so can do what, stop trying to end child obesity? Even though the intentions are to donate to any party, in the end it will be going to a party's candidates who is willing to take the money; therefore, money will be in these candidates' mind when they propose or vote for restaurant-oriented bills. This example is why politics should change so that these kind of big bucks donations don't enter the political campaign. The fund raising done in campaigns should be done by little donations by all supporters, not huge donations by four or five supporters.

Mike O said...

I think that the college student spending $25 is the most interesting. College students typically don't have too much extra money, so spending money on politics shows that the student is very interested in them.