In a post entitled “The sh*t Brad Smith says” (shot? shut? – you may as well spell it out, Larry), Larry Lessig quotes Brad Smith from Sunday’s Washington Post as saying, “[W]hen the rubber hits the road, most people say, ‘I don’t think my contribution should be disclosed.’”
“That’s news to me,” says Lessig. “In October, 2010, a New York Times/CBS poll found 92% of Americans thought it important for campaigns to disclose ‘where the money came from.’ I guess the public has seen enough!”
Perhaps Lessig isn’t aware of survey data showing a marked decline in support for disclosure when individuals are asked to disclose information about their own political contributions. The leading study, by Prof. Richard Carpenter, is “Disclosure Costs: The Unintended Consequences of Campaign Finance Reform.” Carpenter found that while over 82 percent of respondents agreed that “The government should require that the identities of those who contribute to ballot issue campaigns should be available to the public,” – a finding in line with the Times‘ poll Larry cites, asking a similar question – by a 56% to 40% margin respondents did not believe that *their* contribution information should be disclosed by government on the internet; and by a 71%-24% margin did not believe that their employer information should be disclosed (as is required under federal and many state disclosure laws.)
This is in line with numerous academic studies showing that people are less likely to make political contributions if they believe their contributions will be disclosed, and with a poll of 1,000 likely voters taken by Pulse Opinion Research in 2010 for CCP, which found that respondents disagreed by a 62-28 margin that “Citizens who contribute to advocacy groups that run political ads should have their name, home address, employer, and occupation reported to the government and posted online,” and by a 64-24 margin disagree with the statement, “My family, neighbors, friends, co-workers, and strangers have a right to know what organizations I contribute to.”
Professor Lessig needs to get up to speed, for sure. But Larry’s post also reminded us that Professor Lessig’s organization has a record of failing to comply with disclosure laws.
