MANATEE REPUBLICANS 'EAT THEIR OWN' TO WIN SCHOOL BOARD RACES

http://www.american-reporter.com/5,036/1.html

It's about huge donations by distant corporations in the
Manatee School Board race.
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BRADENTON, Fla., Aug. 18, 2014 -- The chairman and treasurer of a political action committeee (PAC) called Citizens Against Taxation (CAT), which last week sent out a mailer attacking conservative Republicans Frank Brunner and Mary Cantrell, candidates for the Manatee County School Board, said repeatedly Friday and Saturday that he was "only the accountant" and knew nothing about the allegations in the mailer.

"I was only the accountant," CPA Eric Robinson said several times in interviews with The American Reporter. He said that his role as Chairman and Treasurer are only a convenience that ensures checks written from the funds of the group are not signed by unauthorized people or cannot be accounted for.

He does not sign any of the checks because they are all electronic funds transfers, or ETFs, Robinson said.

But the issue of who pays and who's in charge goes to the larger one of transparency in campaign funding. Eric Robinson's role is barely relevant to the campaigns he serves - theoretically, anyone who can write checks and keep books can do it, and many candidates do.

Actually, the facts behind the "Pea Pod" mailer are a case study in the "triumph" of the Supreme Court's 2010 decision in Citizens United v Federal Elections Commission, which allowed corporations and unions to contribute unlimited amounts anonymously to the candidates of their choice through political action committees, and to do so at any time before the election is held.

While some limitations still exist on funds that state campaigns receive, at a higher level those limits were erased under Citizens United.

At the local level, the impact of that decision is deeply felt by candidates who may be in the same party, particularly when facing a well-heeled PAC whose donors are invisible. Other candidates are effectively forced to raise funds in small amounts - $5 by $10 by $20 - or sell their souls to answer expensive 30-second TV spots and full-page newspaper ads.

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Thank you Joe Shea!
Editor-in-Chief
The American Reporter
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