Are the contributions illegal? Is receiving them illegal? If people are concerned, I suggest pushing for meaningful campaign finance reform. All I see that this money funds is an overabundance of signs littering our roads. Let's spend some energy hosting candidate forums where candidates have to state positions publicly.
Although candidate forums are important, signs play a significant role in getting a candidates name out. I will agree that it does nothing for informing the public on issues, but it is great for name recognition. To this point, there aren't near as many signs out there as have been in the past, and I think part of that is direct mailings and social media. Will you never see signs, probably not, but I think it is possible you will see fewer signs in the future. Just one guys opinion.
As to whether the contributions are illegal, no they are not. I think most posters here have issues with the names associated with them. Also they own large tracts of land that governments desire to purchase for various reasons which give local pundits some heartburn, because they construe it as payback for contributions. Personally, it is difficult for me to rant about whether something is fishy or a conspiracy is afoot. I can understand how folks can jump to conclusions, but lets take for example the property for a new school in south Walton. The School Board had a committee established to find property in a certain area. Based on the articles, there were a couple of parcels that met the size requirements. Of those, as I understand it there were some that were higher elevation than others and some that had more usable land than others. All this seems to be prudent when buying property to build a multi million dollar facility. Unfortunately, the person, group or whatever was a contributor to a politician, and now we have a problem because it smells like payback. I don't know, I wish it wasn't a contributor so those that have issues with it could feel at ease. In the end, those folks that have been elected are supposed to be looking out for our interest, and if you don't like how they are doing it, we have the opportunity to change it, if it means donating a grand or 2 to help your chosen candidate or whatever. Beware that you could be criticized for ever doing business with those entities, whether you are a teacher, cook, an air conditioner repairman or whatever. I am done with my rant. Thanks for reading. These views are mine and don't represent any groups or organizations I may be affiliated with.