Exposure worries donors

[icymist]

Saturday, May 22, 2004 - Page updated at 12:00 A.M.

On Politics / David Postman
Exposure worries donors

It used to be Freedom Socialist Party members who worried that their political views would make them targets of harassment or even violence.

Now backers of John Kerry are scared, too.

Advances in technology have made it easy to find out the political leanings of anyone who donates money to a political candidate or cause. A few clicks on the Internet are all it takes to find campaign-finance information that once was seen mostly by government watchdogs and investigative reporters.

The free flow of information makes it easier than ever to track down who is paying for America's campaigns. Disclosure is a linchpin of our post-Watergate political system.

But it's making some donors uncomfortable.

<snip>

The New York Times wrote this week about people unhappy that their donation records were so easily accessible on public Web sites. A Kerry backer worried about being the target of vandalism in her heavily Republican neighborhood. And a donor to Howard Dean's campaign was reported to have complained to the Federal Elections Commission that it was a violation of his civil rights and the information could be used by a potential employer to blackball him.

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~~~I not at the point of feeling uncomfortable donating money to Kerry yet, but I do feel paranoid when people start taking my photograph while I'm in my car with the DU bumpersticker on the rear.

[ClintonTyree]

1. Screw 'em..............

it's a free country (for the time being anyway). DO NOT back down from these "morans" or they've already won. I don't give a damn who knows to whom I donate money. Anyone who's that timid about a donation or what the neighbor's think needs a spinal transplant.

[bemildred]

2. Good, this "one dollar, one vote" deal has to go. nt

[i_c_a_White_Ghost]

3. pugs don't worry me

I give to whoever i feel like.

[Eric J in MN]

4. I support transparency.

I support transparency.

I'm glad I can find out that Ross Perot gave $2,000 to George W. Bush, and so did Bill Gates, etc.

I don't want this kept secret.

[cestmoi]

5. Millions of people worldwide have died & are dieing now for democracy.

Over the last fifty years citizens in the US, Canada and Europe have become complacent about democracy and fail to realize the powerful forces at work to undermine it.

Go anywhere else in the world and those who are trying to establish democracies face assassination. We all have been spared such repercussions and assume that democracy is a birthright that extracts no real cost.

With the advent of globalization there is mounting pressure to undermine democracies. That sinister repercussions may now occur for exercising rights should be a wake up call. No longer can any citizen in any democratic country take their system for granted.

[woofless]

6. Any picture taken of me in my truck with the DU sticker

would feature one finger prominently displayed.

Woof