Would it be legal?

[BurlyShirley]

Would it be legal for, say, the republicans to fund a third party candidate....say, like Ralph Nader, who is liberal but has no chance of winning, for the sole purpose of taking votes away from the Democrats. Or say, for the Dems to fund someone like Ross Perot?

Obvioulsy, it couldnt be obvious, but through some business connections...it might be possible...but legal?

[DRB]

Originally posted by BurlySurly
Would it be legal for, say, the republicans to fund a third party candidate....say, like Ralph Nader, who is liberal but has no chance of winning, for the sole purpose of taking votes away from the Democrats. Or say, for the Dems to fund someone like Ross Perot?

Obvioulsy, it couldnt be obvious, but through some business connections...it might be possible...but legal?

Legally, I don't think there would be anything wrong with it as long as they the funds met all the criteria of the campaign finance laws.

Ethically...... its a real tar baby that if they got found out (which they would) would be very devistating.

[Silver]

That is kinda what Gray Davis did in California last election (regular election, not the recall one) during the Republican primaries. He ran ads against the moderate Republican, and the idiots (the California Repubs have a part of the party that makes the Montana militias look reasonable sometimes) went ahead and nominated the guy who was very conservative socially.

[Westy]

I think the campaign finance laws require that the source of campaign funds to be public. So it would have to be obvious, or illegal.

[fluff]

Originally posted by Westy
I think the campaign finance laws require that the source of campaign funds to be public. So it would have to be obvious, or illegal.

How hard would it be to hide? Haliburton could do it by themselves couldn't they? (Or would that be illegal too? I'm not au fait with US political funding laws.)

[Westy]

Originally posted by fluff
How hard would it be to hide? Haliburton could do it by themselves couldn't they? (Or would that be illegal too? I'm not au fait with US political funding laws.)

I guess the Reps could give money to individuals who would then give it to the other candidate, but with individual contribution limits there would have to be lots of people involved. To do it through a large corporation would also be tricky due to the financial auditing they have to go through. It would certainly be possible but at the same time if this was happening the Democrats would notice the 3rd party guy getting large amounts of money and would investigate thouroughly. The political fallout if cought would probably make it not worth doing.

Since much of campaigning is bashing your opponents the Republican party would just be wise to ignore a liberal 3rd party candidate or just do some half assed bashing that would give him more of a spotlight than anything else.

[Sideways]

Originally posted by Silver
... that makes the Montana militias look reasonable sometimes..

That's my family you are talking about, dude.