For those who don't know, Mr Nutter is against PACs. PACs represent the evil side of politics in that they support candidates.
You are a POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE not just interested in the greater good of Lowell but in Candidates who YOU endorse and buy ads for to serve the purpose of pushing YOUR GROUPS AGENDA. It has nothing to do with the neighborhoods or greater good of the City it has to do with what YOUR Group who endorses candidates and buy ads for them want to do here in Lowell for what Your Group considers the betterment of Lowell.Mr Nutter is absolutely correct. Move Lowell Forward does a survey and then racks and stacks the candidates as we see them in terms of serving the greater good of Lowell. Then we make that finding public and since anything more than a blog post costs money, we pay to make that finding public.
Where Mr Nutter goes astray is when he says: "It has nothing to do with the neighborhoods or greater good of the City...". It has everything to do with the neighborhoods and the greater good of the City.
PACs sort of flow from a combination of the First Amendment and Campaign Finance Reform. For example, former US Senator Russ Feingold (my wife thinks his sister was in the same K-12 class as her younger brother) has been a strong advocate for campaign finance reform. He is fighting the US Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. FEC. (I happen to think Citizens United v. FEC was properly decided by the SCOTUS.) At any rate, here is an extract from the Wikipedia entry on Senator Feingold:
On February 17, 2011, Feingold announced he had formed a grassroots Political Action Committee Progressives United, a movement intended, among other things, to fight the controversial United States Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. FEC.Yes, it is a PAC, and one formed by someone who is a strong advocate for campaign finance reform. And, that PAC does advertising out on the World Wide Web, including on blogs that take advertising. Here is a typical advert:
Ads by GoogleGuess where I found that Advert. Those who picked Gerry Nutter's Word Press powered blog would be correct. On the other hand, Gerry told me this evening that he gets no money from these Google Ads, and I believe him. Just one of the accidents of nature.
Progressives United
Share your idea for fixing Citizens United with fellow progressives:
agenda.ProgressivesUnited.org
The thing is, PACs are everywhere and where there are not PACs there are 501C2 operations, or something else. Didn't I hear Marie Sweeney say on City Life this AM that she was part of a 501C3 organization here in Lowell? They are prohibited from active campaigning for elective office, but are not excluded from lobbying. I wonder if they are allowed to make donations? I hope not. But, campaigning is more a 501(c)(4) activity. I bet Host George Anthes could tell us all about that, but probably won't, since he doesn't play a lawyer on City Life.
Regards — Cliff
PS: No need to add "Colonel" to my name. Cliff is good enough.
I've always felt it sufficient to consider the source. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI think Gerry is primarily concerned with "undue influence" in local politics. He is constantly mentioning the paper ad and radio ads MLF did for the slate we supported.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I don't see a shadowy hand of MLF in Lowell politics. If we have such a hand, there is a spotlight on it. Being a PAC means a higher degree of transparency, than say the SAC Club clique.
I have personally witnessed ideas promoted to Councilors and Committee members, from non-MLF members, that have ended up as motions. In local politics, there is a high degree of contact between constituents and electeds. This leads to direct lobbying that gets action very quickly.
The MLF PAC really has no more influence on outcome than anyone else. Hell, some guy called Dan called Bill Martin, while Bill was on City Life, asking for a change in the signals at Bridge/VFW. The next week there was a motion and now the DOT is on the case. Kudos to Dan and Bill Martin. And kudos to City Life for creating a connection between public and pol.
If MLF "pushes" anything, it is the public discussion of important topics. Whatever position MLF takes on any given subject is reached by consensus. That position, in turn, is offered to fellow Lowellians for further consideration.
The PAC designation is the legal way to do these things on the table.