Republicans leveraging technology, yo.
Republicans and outside groups used anonymous Twitter accounts to share internal polling data ahead of the midterm elections, CNN has learned, a practice that raises questions about whether they violated campaign finance laws that prohibit coordination.
The Twitter accounts were hidden in plain sight. The profiles were publicly available but meaningless without knowledge of how to find them and decode the information, according to a source with knowledge of the activities.
The practice is the latest effort in the quest by political operatives to exploit the murky world of campaign finance laws at a time when limits on spending in politics are eroding and regulators are being defanged.
The law says that outside groups, such as super PACs and non-profits, can spend freely on political causes as long as they don’t coordinate their plans with campaigns. Sharing costly internal polls in private, for instance, could signal to the campaign committees where to focus precious time and resources.
That seems fair and on the level, especially because IOKIYAR.
I really am disappointed that Democrats aren’t the ones doing this, because then we’d have the Tea Party screeching for 501(c) reform and to pass the DISCLOSE Act.
Or, they’d just impeach Twitter or something.
MomSense
This is the way the kids arrange parties since they have lost facebook to their grandparents.
chrome agnomen
‘we’re only doing what the demonrats would have done if they had thought of it first. both sides!’
/wingnut
Belafon
They got one conclusion wrong:
Actually, this is just one more in a list of things Republicans do because, in their view, it’s not illegal unless and until they are punished for it. Part of their Christian upbringing, obviously.
And this brings up the most obvious problem of all: How do you punish a party for violating campaign finance laws? Take away some of their election victories?
NotMax
All politics is played dirty, however Republicans play filthy.
And no, this is not meant to imply that Dems do or have done no wrong.
gene108
@Belafon:
Being a Republican means you never get punished for “it”. You’ll have friends in high places to pardon your misdeeds, so it’s like “it” never happened.
Belafon
Maybe we could do like the NCAA and declare that their election victories in 2014 will be removed from the record books. That’ll show them.
KG
@Belafon: massive fines on the parties and campaigns involved. like crippling you-can’t-run-a-competitive-race-in-this-state/district fines.
NonyNony
No they wouldn’t. That isn’t how Republicans work.
What they would do is use it as an example of “Chicago-style” politics (as they call it), Democratic lawlessness, and overall just how awful Democratic politicians are. Which serves two purposes – one as cover to the fact that they do the same things (“both sides do it!” says the guy in the middle “so both sides suck”) and two to depress the Democratic vote. Because Democratic voters want to vote for good people and will hesitate to pull the lever for someone who has a whiff of corruption about them (Republican voters, on the other hand, assume all politicians are bastards and are only concerned that theirs is the biggest. This is why cries of hypocrisy and even outright criminality roll right off most Republican pols – their voters do not care because they expect their politicians to be hypocritical crooks. As long as they’re hypocritical crooks who vote the way they want them to vote they’re okay with it.)
KG
@NonyNony: you forgot the part where they would then argue that campaign finance laws obviously don’t work so we should just scrap them all.
Zandar
@Belafon: Democrats get to start on the 25 yard line instead of the 20.
While still being down 4 touchdowns.
Cacti
@gene108:
Yup.
Since Ford pardoned Nixon (with approval of the press courtiers), the GOP hasn’t tried to hide the fact that they’re an ongoing, criminal enterprise, in service of the 1%.
rlrr
There’s the so called Freedom Book (formerly ReaganBook). It’s like Facebook, without the icky liberals.
Zandar
@NonyNony: Of course not. They’d impeach everyone they could find instead.
dance around in your bones
@MomSense:
That made me laugh way out loud and honestly I have never been on Facebook ever ever ever even though I am a Nonny :) I’m kinda weird/scared about social media – it lasts like, forever.
ETA: Unlike, say, comments and stories I tell on Balloon Juice, har de har de har O.o
Paul in KY
@NonyNony: Excellent summation.
pseudonymous in nc
Of course they did. Just as Rove and his minions used private email accounts for government business to avoid archiving requirements. “It’s not coordinated communication: we’re just a dark-money group leaving information lying around in public on this obscure twitter account, and if the campaigns happen to read it, well… whatchagonnadoaboutit?”
But hey, some brown person shouldn’t be allowed to vote because there’s a typo on his birth certificate: it’s about the integrity of elections.
catclub
Hiding donors is an open invitation to foreign cash. I am bumfuzzled that there is not high pitched screaming against it.
I also thought the GOP owned states would expand Medicare after two years of saying they would not, but the Docs and Hospitals pulled no weight there.
Gin & Tonic
@dance around in your bones: Unlike, say, comments and stories I tell on Balloon Juice
Like, for instance, something about waiting for a young man to come over and, um, handle certain needs?
CONGRATULATIONS!
All politics is played dirty, however Republicans play
filthyTO WIN.@NotMax: Fixed that for you. I’ll leave the obvious corollary unsaid.
Roger Moore
@KG:
I think jail time is more likely to get people’s attention, especially if it’s the candidate who winds up with the jail time.
catclub
@Gin & Tonic:
So the story is about waiting rather than pro-active policies to encourage?
dance around in your bones
@Gin & Tonic: Ya gottit dude :)
He was quite nice, and considerate of my old fractured hip…..and I’m kinda waiting for him to come back from work tonight and sneak into my room or vice versa ;)
@catclub: I guess you didn’t hear the story the other night but young guy is the same age as my daughter!!!! and we are roommates but it was QUITE unplanned and thoroughly enjoyable. I mean, a 60 yr old woman making moves on a 42 yr old guy? I’m not Mrs Robinson or anything :)
catclub
Did anyone else note that right after the RNC was asked about it, the accounts were deleted?
Isn’t that guilty conscience behavior?
C.V. Danes
It would appear that Twitter is slowly circling the drain, so the Republicans may not have this venue for “shaping” elections for very much longer…
dance around in your bones
@catclub: Sounds like standard Repub behavior – as long as it’s secret, it’s ok…….but if anyone finds out about it ? gets deleted quick as shit.
mai naem mobile
@catclub: no, they set up other ones before these were deleted. Seriously, why didnt the Dem oppo research ppl notice this?
Another Holocene Human
@NonyNony:
Nailed it.
A less depressing way to frame this is that “Democratic voters take out the trash.”
Another Holocene Human
@catclub:
Because the scam worked and you can’t prove anything. Foreign interests poured gallons of money into the US Chamber of Commerce, there was a kerfuzzle, you couldn’t prove the money flowed to candidates because “money is fungible”. Okay, then.
It turns out state delegates/reps/whatever are afraid of TeaHadis. As well they should be — look at what happened to Cantor. There are still local “conservative” outlets, especially radio for dialing up the hysteria, that take glee in taking out Republicans in the primaries with crazier Republicans.
The corporate wing has taken the reins on bigger campaigns, hence the Senate wins (they were supposed to be winning 2 years ago, and 4 years ago, but the Teapublicans blew their shit up), but aside from airlifting cash into generals they didn’t have a big say in primaries, at least this round, and that means corporate interests that want Medicaid expansion to happen, and there are a lot of them, don’t have any more leverage now than they did yesterday.
Meanwhile your straight up billionaire vandals feel like their dicks grew three sizes on 11/5 and are living large and swinging easy or however that commercial went. Oil barons could really give a fuck if the US economy burns down to the ground.
Tree With Water
A political reckoning about this brazen lawlessness is “off the table. Let us look forward, not back”. Or so I assume we’ll soon be informed by democratic party shot callers. That is, if they deign explain at all. Here’s hoping to pleasantly surprised (raises beer stein).
The GOP barrel is bursting with fish at least as big, but no one seems to ever pull a trigger. And it doesn’t get more sinister than stealing elections, does it? Considering the stakes, I think it a reasonable expectation that said shot callers ratchet it up, and by more than a few notches. What good are they doing otherwise?