| | I signed up for the free newsletter from the Institute for Justice (www.ij.org) -- one of the premier defenders of reason, in this country. My October issue is relevant to this thread. Here are relevant excerpts:
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Here in Washington state, talk show radio hosts may be pressured into silence on important public issues because their speech is objectionable to the political establishment.
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The trouble started when a group of citizens opposed to Washington's newly instituted 9 1/2-cent tax increase on gasoline formed NoNewGasTax.com (NNGT), a political action committee dedicated to putting gas tax to a vote. Initiative 912 (I-912) proved popular with the public and it quickly became apparent that NNGT would succeed in gathering the 225,000 signatures it needed to accomplish its goal within a short 32-day time period.
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The law firm then filed a lawsuit against NNGT, alleging, among other things, that Carlson and Wilbur's on-air discussions constituted "in-kind" contributions that should have been reported under Washington law. (An "in-kind" contribution is a non-monetary contribution, like printing services or equipment.)
The argument that on-air political discussions might constitute in-kind contributions is totally unprecedented.
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NNGT must now waste a significant portion of its limited time and resources parsing through media mentions of I-912, affixing "values" and reporting them as "in-kind contributions" to the campaign.
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The underlying lawsuit is not about the government's concern for campaign finance law, but rather is a veiled attempt to harass NNGT and get its supporters to be quiet.
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Had they been able to keep I-912 off the ballot, the county and cities that delegated their prosecutorial authority to the private law firm would have ensured the success of the State's plan to issue bonds, guaranteed by the gas tax revenues, to fund transportation projects in their respective jurisdictions. The law firm would have been guaranteed a windfall of legal fees for work associated with the planned bond sales. Such bald conflicts of interest in the outcome of the proceedings by the prosecutors calls into question the integrity of the entire process and seriously implicates due process concerns.
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If the judge's order stands, members of the media will be required to self-censor if they wish to avoid being labeled as campaign contributors and will no longer be able to fulfill their vital democratic role as watchdogs of the political establishment.
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Pretty scary stuff, if you ask me ...
Ed
(Edited by Ed Thompson
on 10/25, 10:50pm)
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