Campaign Finance Reform
- Thread starter meggiemom
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Since I don't have money to contribute to political candidates, I sometimes volunteer to help with putting up signs, and making phone calls. But I'm a realist. Walton County is like Jesse Jackson Jr.'s congressional district,(the difference being a different idealogical extreme). People are going to vote for the Republican regardless of how corrupt the candidate might be over a Democrat or independent. I suspect the members of the good old boy Walton County Republican Club always support the party favorites and they jump on the band wagon and giving 100 bucks to the obvious favorite gives them a warm, fuzzy feeling.
It is the system that corrupts the politicians and not the other way around. If all of us including the supreme court will admit to a corrupt system then there is hope for something better. Unless you are very wealthy (the one percenters) then any participation in the present system will not do or help anything because money is presently the bottom line in our political system. Money is necessary because of the power of television over all of us. I watch TV for distraction, for information for entertainment and maybe because of addiction so every time I do this it is a poor choice in use of my time. I am therefore a hipocrit when it comes wanting something better in our campaign system. Until we train ourselves off the television this problem will be here to stay. My resolution to keep the TV off begins in January and ends in January every year for the last 10 years. I wonder if there are any studies as to the chemical affects of television on our audio-visual receptors? Wonder if those studies would be published if there were? This issue is not unrelated to the political campaign system and the protection of campaign contributions under the first amendment however there is no good reason why we can not have laws to limit these contributions. Otherwise whether it is Walton County or any other County in the US there will not be a level playing field and campaigns will be won by those with the most MONEY.
Destin developer Jay Odom was aware well before he was arrested Tuesday morning that federal authorities would be coming to arrest him for making illegal campaign contributions.
That gave Odom the opportunity to turn himself in and saved U.S. government agents the trouble of tracking him down, according to Len Register, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Pensacola.
“He knew they were coming,” Register said. “His lawyers offered to surrender him.”
The two charges Odom faces — providing campaign contributions in the name of someone else and causing another to make a false statement to the Federal Election Commission — actually were filed at different times, Register said.
Odom was indicted on the first count on Nov. 13, 2012, Register said.
The indictment was filed and sealed so violations alleged to have occurred in December 2007 could be charged by the end of the year. That allowed authorities to meet the five-year statute of limitations requirement, Register said.
That charge states Odom convinced his employees and their families, and employees and family members of a friend’s business to make donations of $2,300 to the campaign of Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, and reimbursed them for doing so.
The campaign contributions — 10 of them, according to federal charging documents — were made between Christmas day and the end of the year.
The second charge, which states that Odom’s deception caused Huckabee’s campaign to make a false report to the Federal Elections Commission, wasn’t filed until Tuesday, Register said.
Because that violation occurred in January 2008, federal authorities had until Jan. 31 to file the charge within the statute of limitations.
An attempt to reach Odom for comment was unsuccessful.
That gave Odom the opportunity to turn himself in and saved U.S. government agents the trouble of tracking him down, according to Len Register, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Pensacola.
“He knew they were coming,” Register said. “His lawyers offered to surrender him.”
The two charges Odom faces — providing campaign contributions in the name of someone else and causing another to make a false statement to the Federal Election Commission — actually were filed at different times, Register said.
Odom was indicted on the first count on Nov. 13, 2012, Register said.
The indictment was filed and sealed so violations alleged to have occurred in December 2007 could be charged by the end of the year. That allowed authorities to meet the five-year statute of limitations requirement, Register said.
That charge states Odom convinced his employees and their families, and employees and family members of a friend’s business to make donations of $2,300 to the campaign of Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, and reimbursed them for doing so.
The campaign contributions — 10 of them, according to federal charging documents — were made between Christmas day and the end of the year.
The second charge, which states that Odom’s deception caused Huckabee’s campaign to make a false report to the Federal Elections Commission, wasn’t filed until Tuesday, Register said.
Because that violation occurred in January 2008, federal authorities had until Jan. 31 to file the charge within the statute of limitations.
An attempt to reach Odom for comment was unsuccessful.