The Center for Competitive Politics has long argued that while there may be some minimal benefit to disclosure of large contributions to candidates for office, most other disclosure measures are intrusive, unnecessary, and potentially dangerous. Hence, our opposition to the DISCLOSE Act, the latest effort by the so-called campaign finance “reform” community to stifle unwelcome political speech.
But our focus has generally been on the contributor side, pointing out how excessive disclosure usually simply gives ammunition to candidates who prefer to demonize opponents by discussing their donor’s alleged sins rather than address substantive issues. Also important, of course, is that disclosure enables politicians, their allies, and enraged and potentially unhinged activists and cranks to harass, intimidate, and exact retribution against those that dare to dissent from their own agenda.
Neglected by us has been the very real possibility that disclosure on the expenditure side poses similar risks to those who do business with or work for the candidate.
Sam Stein and Amanda Terkel at the Huffington Post today report that a staffer for the National Republican Congressional Campaign (NRCC) yesterday tweeted the names and home addresses of six staffers for the campaign of incumbent Democratic Congressman Tom Perriello.
Andy Sere, a press hand for the NRCC who handles southern congressional races, made the highly unorthodox move after Perriello’s staff called the chief of staff of his opponent, state senator Robert Hurt, a “carpetbagger”. Sere responded with six separate tweets noting each staffer that Perriello himself employed from out of the district and calling on the Virginia Democrat to fire those aides or risk being labeled a hypocrite.
The Republican listed the exact home addresses of those six Democratic staffers, relying on what another NRCC hand said were July quarterly reports.
During a climate season already marked by fevered rhetoric, political threats and even the occasional act of vandalism, Sere’s tweets sparked concern and outrage among Perriello supporters.
Worth noting, as MinistryofTruth reminds us over at DailyKos, that Perriello was apparently the target of a vandalism attempt after someone posted what they thought was his home address online.
We’ll let the campaigns of Congressman Perriello and Senator Hurt, as well as the NRCC and no doubt the DSCC, volley accusations and counter-accusations back and forth over who is more in the right or the wrong in this affair.
But this incident should hopefully, at the very least, cause people to reconsider just what information is necessary to be disclosed about the political activities and inclinations of private citizens (and staffers for candidates are, in fact, private citizens), and what is too much disclosure.
There’s little to gain from public knowing the names, addresses, and pay of campaign staffers, and clearly much to be concerned about.
