The Militant, weekly newspaper of the Socialist Workers Party, has this front-page story in its May 13 issue, explaining and celebrating the recent decision of the Federal Elections Commission to continue the party’s exemption from reporting its campaign contributors and how it spends its money.
I didn’t realize incidents of petitioner’s being harassed counted toward the exemption. Any “third” party could point to dozens of examples of that!
Disclosure of involvement in any third party can be an issue. In my involvement with the Green Party, I’ve meet many people who really want to support us, will vote for us but are afraid to change their enrollment, donate, sign a petition, because that’s public information. In some cases they fear the impact on things like employment so it’s not simply a case of “social” exposure.
It’s a quandary though because knowing who big donors are in the major parties and their party PACs helps some of us point to the influence of those tied to corporate interests.