Glad you covered this. Would be great to see simple analytics to prove the point or not. Is the term “dark money” used disproportionately in NYT copy when donations above X threshold are given to Y party/candidate/ballot issue compared to Z party/candidate etc.
Insane amounts of money. It would be great if that money could be put to better use. Have candidates write out their platform, publish it, and then go out and shake hands with citizens.
The amount of money is even more overwhelming when you consider that the spending is focused on a few "swing" states. I put "swing" in quotes because the information about which states face close contests comes from polling, which is less reliable than one might imagine because the response rate to polls is less than 2% in states not already known to be swing states. There have been big surprises in past elections about which states would have close outcomes. This is understandable because if you know the low response rates to polls you understand that the massaging of polling data to extrapolate from the 2% responders to the 98% non-responders is more art than science.
Glad you covered this. Would be great to see simple analytics to prove the point or not. Is the term “dark money” used disproportionately in NYT copy when donations above X threshold are given to Y party/candidate/ballot issue compared to Z party/candidate etc.
I am interested to know what a "secret-money nonprofit arm" is and how it relates to Federal Election Law.
Insane amounts of money. It would be great if that money could be put to better use. Have candidates write out their platform, publish it, and then go out and shake hands with citizens.
The amount of money is even more overwhelming when you consider that the spending is focused on a few "swing" states. I put "swing" in quotes because the information about which states face close contests comes from polling, which is less reliable than one might imagine because the response rate to polls is less than 2% in states not already known to be swing states. There have been big surprises in past elections about which states would have close outcomes. This is understandable because if you know the low response rates to polls you understand that the massaging of polling data to extrapolate from the 2% responders to the 98% non-responders is more art than science.
There would be even more focus on swing states if my proposal for presidential primaries gets implemented. The proposal is that the states where the outcome was closest in the previous presidential election are the ones that would get the earliest presidential primary dates in the next election: https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-bipartisan-schedule-for-presidential-primaries-south-carolina-nomination-process-election-race-voters-11670350936