The main body of this post suggests we should mark Monday with special observances, when we finally get to see the disclosure reports which don't list the huge amounts of money which arrived the day after the September 30 deadline, as it has for the past several elections in SC. Perfectly legal, exceptionally misleading.
The Filing Deadline for disclosing contributions received prior to September 30 has already passed and we’re now in the blind period when right wing operatives like Howard Rich coordinate pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into SC political races. Little if any of this activity will be disclosed prior to the election.
After the election, political wonks will drill down through pages of forms, load up spreadsheets and show us how it was done. It will be clear that checks were printed and placed in express mail envelopes the day before the disclosure deadline cutoff, and dropped in the mail after midnight, arriving at the first possible moment when influence could be purchased without outing the candidate for selling out.
In some cases half a dozen thousand dollar checks will issue from a single New York office, from different people, LLCs and political groups. They're probably run off on the same printer, signed by the same hand under a power of Attorney and carried to the Post or Fed Ex Office in the same bag.
http://www.schoolsmatter.info/...
Usually nothing is reported about this until after the election, however perhaps Democrats should declare Monday Howard Rich day and encourage people throughout the state, candidates and media, to participate in an open discussion of what money, if any our candidates have received from Howard Rich that isn’t disclosed on their recently filed reports. We could distribute a list of past donors and organizations associated with Rich.
I think Monday should sort of be like a dirty Christmas morning. Instead of asking our political "friends" what they got from Santa, we’ll ask them what major contributions they’ve received since the last filing deadline which aren’t on their disclosure form. When they say they don’t know, we can call them liars. We can do all of this while reviewing their fresh disclosure reports which may be leaving a big chunk of reality out.
They know how much money they're getting. Its the core concern of their campaigns. They’ve been waiting on these checks and they’ve counted every penny. We shouldn’t have to wait until it is too late to know who sent them.
Next time, contributions should be reported online, before they're deposited and available to be spent.