The One Percenters are looking for a better class of candidates. True, the 2012 presidential race looks to be between a millionaire and a quarter-billionaire, but the Democrat is a known traitor to his class and the presumptive Repub candidate is just embarrassing. So our financial betters have decided to pay some of their more deserving courtiers to gin up publicity for adding more horses’ arses to the horserace. And, for irony, they call themselves: American Select — I mean, Americans Elect!
From Dan Froomkin at Huffington Post:
Americans Elect, a group trying to launch a third-party presidential ticket, was accused by a prominent campaign watchdog Wednesday of violating tax and campaign finance disclosure laws.
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Fred Wertheimer, head of Democracy 21, said in a statement that the group is posing as a “social welfare group” rather than a political organization in order “to keep secret from the American people the donors supporting its political activities.”
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Social welfare groups don’t have to disclose who underwrites them — but they’re also supposed to stay out of elections.
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Meanwhile, at a kickoff event for Americans Elect at the National Press Club on Tuesday, the group’s leaders described how they intend to put a “nonpartisan presidential ticket” — chosen through an online, open nominating convention — on the ballot in all 50 states. The goal, they said, it to give voters an alternative to the limited choice the two-party system provides.
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Kahlil Byrd, the group’s CEO, said it is operating “completely within the bounds” of the law. He noted that unlike a traditional political group, “Americans Elect has no candidate and has no issue.”
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As for the donors, he said, the reason they want to remain secret is to avoid political payback. “This is a very tough political environment,” he said. “Retribution is real.”
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Byrd also, perhaps contradictorily, described donating to the campaign as “a small act of courage.”…
Very small, indeed. Let’s play these brave souls a tribute on the world’s tiniest violin. Alex MacGinnis at TNR adds a money shot:
… [Americans Elect] announced today that they have secured ballot access in Ohio, after having already secured it in Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, Kansas, Florida and Michigan. They have collected 1.9 million petition signatures in all, more than halfway to the needed goal of 2.9 million. They are also nearing their $30 million fundraising goal — the bulk of it in chunks of more than $100,000 from about 50 well-heeled backers — and have close to 150 paid staff.
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Return of the Return of the Goo-Goos (or, The Best Candidates Money Can Buy)Post + Comments (65)