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Scott Walker Rents Out Email and Donor Lists To Pay Campaign Debt (wisconsingazette.com)
An anonymous reader writes: In an effort to pay off his hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt racked up from his failed presidential run, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is renting out his email and donor lists to other candidates. Wisconsin Gazette reports: "The campaign owed $1.2 million at the end of 2015 and has paid off about $308,000 since then, according to campaign finance records. The bulk of those payments have been made possible by income from Granite Lists, a New Hampshire-based company that rents out Republican donor lists. Granite Lists has paid more than $172,000 to Walker's campaign since it ended in September. In April alone, Granite Lists brought the campaign nearly $50,000, comprising most of the total $70,930 the campaign brought in that month. In addition to flat-rate charges, candidates can set up revenue-sharing agreements, where some of the proceeds they obtain from donors are diverted back to the list owner. Candidates can also pay a flat rate of $10,500 to email Walker's entire 675,000-person email list and $7,000 to email the 225,000 donors and presidential sign-ups, according to Granite Lists website. [Granite Lists] calls Walker's donor file 'one of the hottest donor lists to hit the market in years.'"
And sent Ron Paul $10.
In return, to this day, I'm still getting batshit ramblings in my inbox from all over the Republican spectrum.
Never again.
It would, at least, afford large donors the opportunity to bribe their politicians the old fashioned way.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee rented the Obama for America list twice in April, services valued at $135,000, according to an FEC report.
The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
I've thought it would be an unbelievably valuable idea to start a fake conservative blog to farm email lists of gullible dopes. I see that Scott Walker was ahead of me on this count. Well played, Herr Walker... well played.
Who did what now?
I just do not understand, why is it necessary to go in to debt to run for president of this country...Perhaps to sell your soul now so that you can sell it later....
Apparently Charles and David Koch have abandoned their favorite son. They could pay his debts out of petty cash. But they won't. Kind of reminds you of those two old goats in the movie trading places doesn't it?
Clue that it is not the case is at the start of the first sentence.
"The campaign owed $1.2 million at the end of 2015 and has paid off about $308,000 since then, according to campaign finance records."
Did anyone expect anything else from an erstwhile rising star of the "party of fiscal responsibility?"
Or are they not even bothering to try to push that bullshit anymore?
My wife worked as a staffer for a couple of years in early 2k and this is nothing new, every politician, and political organization does this on both sides of the party.
There are two different versions of list-pimping that are going on regarding e-mail lists:
It can be sold/rented for a fixed amount ($X).
OR
It can be sold/rented for a fixed percentage of the incoming donations (Y%).
An older article on Politico (Dec 2015) details the issue, where the candidate on the e-mail may not receive any of the money being donated.
http://www.politico.com/story/...
How do you rent out an email list? Normally renting implies that you give the thing back at the end of the rental term, which I have a hard time believing would happen here.
file:
Posting anon because I'm at work and work for a commercial mailer.
A lot of charities do this, and based on other comments, other politicians/parties to this. As for how it's done, the lists are usually rented for a limited number of mailings, usually one or two, and contain seeds to detect re-use. If a company uses a list again without paying for it, it will get noticed and they will basically get blackballed and be unable to rent a list again. There are several companies that handle this, and often a rental can actually be just an exchange of an equal number of donors, rather than paying x$/1000 names.
Create online petition.
Provide a print_out-sign-fax_in form.
???
Profit.
Also, shouldn't stuff like GPEA make sure that electronic signatures are treated equally as ones made on paper?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
SEC. 1707. ENFORCEABILITY AND LEGAL EFFECT OF ELECTRONIC RECORDS.
Electronic records submitted or maintained in accordance with
procedures developed under this title, or electronic signatures or other
forms of electronic authentication used in accordance with such
procedures, shall not be denied legal effect, validity, or
enforceability because such records are in electronic form.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
"Scott Walker Rents Out Email and Donor Lists To Pay Campaign Debt"
Translation:
"Scott Walker Is A Scumbag Who Doesn't Give A Shit About Your Privacy"
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
So making an attempt to pay off a debt somehow "erases" the irresponsibility of running up the debt in the first place?
You're saying that, not me.
I'm not arguing whether it is right or just or ethical to go into debt
BUT YOU JUST DID
Nope, I didn't. I argued about whether it is right or just or ethical TO PAY OFF ONE'S DEBTS.
And, should anyone else get all huffity, plenty of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, including our current sitting president, have racked up massive campaign debts. I make no judgement on whether going into debt to finance a campaign is good or not -- I accept it as the current standard behavior. Paying off one's debts (which seems to be a long-term problem for Democrats, Republicants, and Independents, also including our current sitting president), is a morally good thing.
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.