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  2 0 Actually, the books for pretty much any political organization registered within the state of Washington are required by law to be open. It's just a matter of figuring out exactly what name they're registered under, then you can go to the PDC (Public Disclosure Committee) website and search the database. All expenditures and contributions are required by law to be disclosed, right down to that box of paperclips from Office Despot. Most PACs can be fairly free about how they disburse money, but the actual party organizations are EXTREMELY limited in how they spend theirs. They cannot, for example, give money donated for a specific purpose or to a specific candidate to something else. I highly recommend checking out the PDC website if you have an interest in campaign finance in Washington state. As a former candidate (never, never again!), I became quite intimately familiar with them. http://www.pdc.wa.gov/ Geni answered in News & Politics over 2 years ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  2 0 They spend it campaigning. Consultants cost money; so do offices. So do polls; most campaigns, whether for candidates or issues, do nearly continuous polling of some sort or another. Mailings cost money. TV ads cost a LOT of money. Most issues organizations today spend most of their time acquiring and grooming names. It's database management, really. Who are you, where do you live, did you respond to their last email or mail piece, what did you say to the pollster, will you give again and why, etc. They also spend a huge amount of time throwing press releases into the maw of the media, hoping that something will stick -- maybe a reporter or editorialist will do a piece on your issue, or even let you do an op-ed. People who are good at press releases and op-eds cost money. Fnarf answered in News & Politics over 2 years ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  1 0 Best Suggestion for your last line/Q: Let's all stop giving the non-disclosing political groups money and give money to organizations with open books. end result: good honest places get the support they need, and organizations that aren't willing to have open books will learn to adapt or die, all Darwin-like. 1st Q: In short: They use them however they damn well like, just like any other group that solicits your money (theatres, churches, girl scouts, the government...). Rev.Enant answered in News & Politics over 2 years ago | Report 4 comments by hey there, Rev.Enant, and hey there… 0 0 @ your first ling ... where do we find the disclosures? I suspect I just don't know where to look. hey there commented over 2 years ago | Report 0 0 You may be looking for this: http://fundrace.huffingtonpost.com/neighbors.php or http://www.opensecrets.org/ or http://www.fec.gov/disclosure.shtml shows donations and spending of PACs, for one... also useful - a list of lobbyists: http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/kfountain/ and you can use this site to track how (to whom, how much, when, etc) your neighbors are giving: http://www.campaignmoney.com/ interesting article on the privacy issues in all of this: http://infoadvocate.org/blog/2008/08/05/political-donations-and-privacy/ or http://www.eff.org/about Rev.Enant commented over 2 years ago | Report 0 0 Thanks! hey there commented over 2 years ago | Report 0 0 you're welcome! happy to accept a little thumb (or shroom) action too ;) Rev.Enant commented over 2 years ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 0 My rule of thumb would be to avoid organizations that sink a lot of money into third-party fundraising, like those people you see on the street trying to get you to donate. Many/most of them are not employed by the organizations themselves, they're employed by a fundraising company, which takes a big chunk of your donation before it sends the rest to the organization you want to benefit. keshmeshi answered in News & Politics over 2 years ago | Report 1 comment by hey there… 0 0 I'm talking about organizations like moveon, or color of change, or the ACLU. Where do we find their disclosure info? hey there commented over 2 years ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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