It’s one of our basic tenets. The candidate or cause of your choice. Your hard-earned money. Your decision. No one to tell you differently.
Yes, the freedom to express oneself by means of personal political contributions is an undeniable right. Unless, that is, one prefers to be private about it.
Somewhere near the vortex of such issues as First Amendment rights, the public’s need to know, and an individual’s privacy is a document called the California Political Reform Act. Now, throw into the mix the question of harassment and personal safety concerns.
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March 30th, 2009 at 12:00 am
This is a very interesting conflict between privacy and campaign finance laws.
The law that prohibits the disclosure of street addresses comes from legislation by Jim Cunneen (R-San Jose) in 1994.
Campaign disclosure was an important tool to discourage large unseemly contributions to Democrats as well as Republicans. If we put in a privacy escape hatch, there will be much less effective campaign disclosure.
We’ve had some experience with the Political Reform Act. I think it’s time to examine it and look at the successes and failures.