On the recordSeptember 22, 2010
For people who do not follow campaigns day to day or even week to week--a lot of people are making a living and struggling through a tough economy, so they are not always engaged in day-to-day politics. Generally, the way it works in this country, whether it is a State such as Pennsylvania, New York or Vermont or any State in the Union, for the most part, with some exceptions, we have candidates who declare their candidacy for office. They have to file paperwork. They have to fill out ethics forms and provide other disclosures as a candidate. Then candidates, as they are running and raising money, have to make reports about their donors. That happens all the time in State races and in Federal races where someone gives you a contribution of any size, that has to be reported. Some States might have a cutoff below a certain dollar amount. If you are running in an election and someone gives you a contribution of $25,000 or $100,000, people ought to know about that.
