Campaign Audio from PRX

In this third report from the Center for Public Integrity’s The Buying of the President series, Stephanie Mencimer, a reporter for Mother Jones, examines dirty tricks in politics, including recent rumors that Barack Obama is a practicing Muslim. Who are the opposition researchers or tricksters who dig up this dirt? Her investigation attempts to answer these questions and more.

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You can license the audio here.

The WSJ has it that John McCain is getting around campaign finance limits by creating state victory funds in key states this election year: Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado, New Mexico, California, Ohio and Florida. This means contributors can effectively increase their contribution to McCain from $4,600 to $70,00.

Hope stations in the key states run something on it. To help out here’s some FREE resources on money in politics:

• A collection of sound bites from each of the candidates
• An extended interview with Jules Whitcover
  • (Whitcover wrote the book No Way to Pick A President: How Money and Hired Have Debased American Elections).
• Here’s a super fast way to get local data on money in politics
• A feature (4:45) on the history of money in politics
• Everything we have so far

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Remember when your mom use to say “yes, even you can be president one day.” Well, she forgot to add “if you got half a billion dollars.”

Above is a radio piece produced by the Center for Public Integrity about money in politics. They are predicting the 2008 presidential election to cost a billion dollars. The story overviews the progression of money in politics from Nixon all the way to President G. W. Bush.

I recently lent a hand to West Virgina Public Radio searching campaign finance records for the state’s top donors. We saw evidence of wealthy citizens trying to buy their way into Congress, children “writing” checks to their parents favored political candidates, and business owners using their employees to further their personal political prerogatives.

For sure political contributions are a form of free speech. But only a fool would think all donors are merely expressing their right to petition the government. This year newsrooms should spend some days looking at campaign finance in their local areas. PRX is busy coming up with ways to help so stay tuned!

In the meantime: license this piece and air it, find out what kind of campaign disclosure records your state keeps, and get in touch to let us know what you’re working on and how we can help.