DARK MONEY: How it impacts local elections.
Dark money is contributions made to a Political Committee (PC), a Committee of Continuous Existence, or other organizations formed under Florida Elections Law to accumulate funds to pay for political campaigns. There are thousands of these funds utilized in state and federal elections to influence voters. These funds are now being used to influence local elections.
To view the thousands of Florida funds, their donors, and contribution amounts, go to the Florida Elections Commission (Dept.of State) website. It will surprise you, the average citizen, who cannot afford to contribute large amounts to candidates and referendums, to know that your local elections are being influenced by big donors. When you receive a flood of flyers in the mail, robotic phone calls, push polls, and see expensive TV ads, much of the funding comes from “Dark Money”held in these accounts.
Legislators, local commissioners’ supporters, and others start their own funds (using Tallahassee lobbyists, lawyers, and consultants) where their donors can contribute unlimited sums of money to their campaigns without being listed on a candidate’s contributor disclosure forms. One must dig through these organizations online at the Florida Elections Committee website to determine who is contributing. Many times it will be another Committee contributing to a committee which requires tracing back through the committees to determine who exactly contributed.
As an individual citizen, you are restricted by law as to the amount of money you can contribute to a campaign. It varies depending on the office. But, if you give to a PC, or other, there is no limit on the amount you can contribute.!
An example of these funds influencing local elections is seen in the 2016 County Commission races. Randy Gardner gave $5000 to Voter Response (an Electioneering Communication Committee) and his Grande Point Development LLC gave $5000.
(Grande Point Development in Inlet Beach is in the news lately because the homeowners are suing the homebuilder.)
David Ramba, a Tallahassee lobbyist, runs about 90 of these Electioneering, PC, and other committees. He is listed as the Registered Agent. With the $10,000 contribution from Mr. Gardner, thousands of negative flyers were printed and mailed to Walton County voters about 30 days before the primary election.
One of these flyers had false statements known to be false by the writer. False statements made with malicious intent to damage a candidate are a violation of the
Florida Elections Law.
That’s the way it’s done folks.
So if you think your vote counts, it does. But more importantly, your knowledge of dark money, contributors, and the impact on local elections is more important. As they say; Follow the money.
Walton Politics mission is to keep the citizen voters, who are too busy working for a living to follow the money, informed of behind the scenes activity designed to influence your decisions.
www.facebook.com/Waltonpolitics/?hc_ref=ARQ_T7Ws0ZVt7fc-N0TZhLcjoSm47uSNYi-7QjHsXOv399F6ThiiG2Q1oMyn7vp2WRE&fref=nf
Dark money is contributions made to a Political Committee (PC), a Committee of Continuous Existence, or other organizations formed under Florida Elections Law to accumulate funds to pay for political campaigns. There are thousands of these funds utilized in state and federal elections to influence voters. These funds are now being used to influence local elections.
To view the thousands of Florida funds, their donors, and contribution amounts, go to the Florida Elections Commission (Dept.of State) website. It will surprise you, the average citizen, who cannot afford to contribute large amounts to candidates and referendums, to know that your local elections are being influenced by big donors. When you receive a flood of flyers in the mail, robotic phone calls, push polls, and see expensive TV ads, much of the funding comes from “Dark Money”held in these accounts.
Legislators, local commissioners’ supporters, and others start their own funds (using Tallahassee lobbyists, lawyers, and consultants) where their donors can contribute unlimited sums of money to their campaigns without being listed on a candidate’s contributor disclosure forms. One must dig through these organizations online at the Florida Elections Committee website to determine who is contributing. Many times it will be another Committee contributing to a committee which requires tracing back through the committees to determine who exactly contributed.
As an individual citizen, you are restricted by law as to the amount of money you can contribute to a campaign. It varies depending on the office. But, if you give to a PC, or other, there is no limit on the amount you can contribute.!
An example of these funds influencing local elections is seen in the 2016 County Commission races. Randy Gardner gave $5000 to Voter Response (an Electioneering Communication Committee) and his Grande Point Development LLC gave $5000.
(Grande Point Development in Inlet Beach is in the news lately because the homeowners are suing the homebuilder.)
David Ramba, a Tallahassee lobbyist, runs about 90 of these Electioneering, PC, and other committees. He is listed as the Registered Agent. With the $10,000 contribution from Mr. Gardner, thousands of negative flyers were printed and mailed to Walton County voters about 30 days before the primary election.
One of these flyers had false statements known to be false by the writer. False statements made with malicious intent to damage a candidate are a violation of the
Florida Elections Law.
That’s the way it’s done folks.
So if you think your vote counts, it does. But more importantly, your knowledge of dark money, contributors, and the impact on local elections is more important. As they say; Follow the money.
Walton Politics mission is to keep the citizen voters, who are too busy working for a living to follow the money, informed of behind the scenes activity designed to influence your decisions.
www.facebook.com/Waltonpolitics/?hc_ref=ARQ_T7Ws0ZVt7fc-N0TZhLcjoSm47uSNYi-7QjHsXOv399F6ThiiG2Q1oMyn7vp2WRE&fref=nf