{"items": [{"author": "Perry", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/251807744939503?comment_id=251898961597048", "anchor": "fb-251898961597048", "service": "fb", "text": "Huge, I think.  Follow the money.  Suppose you had a choice of 2 contra dances to play for on the same night.  One guaranteed you $200 pay and the other only $50.  Which would you play for?  It's the same in politics.  If you had 2 donors, and one paid you $20,000, and the other paid you $2, and both asked you to vote a certain way, whose request would you answer?  I guess that it's hard to judge because folkies generally don't idolize money the way politicians do.  In politics everyone follows the money.  That's why Congress has passed so many insane laws as of late - no one in their right mind would be, for example, against clean air and water, unless someone paid them handsomely not to be.", "timestamp": "1345028968"}, {"author": "Phillip", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/251807744939503?comment_id=251928828260728", "anchor": "fb-251928828260728", "service": "fb", "text": "Re clean water, in theory you are right, but I suspect you have never had to comply with a regulation. Further was it a vote against clean water that actually had a measurable (and measured) impact on health. The regulation is free for you but it imposes heavy costs on companies. Also very large businesses actually like regulation because they can afford it, while mid-sized  up and comers can't. It is a very good way to keep the status quo. Also follow the money doesn't work so well n terms of in kind gifts of volunteer labor. I would also observe that here in MA any organization (corporation LLC partnership, etc.) is excluded from any political contribution. There is one exception: Organized labor can give $15,000 per candidate. I doubt 1 in 10,000 people knows this. I didn't until I started working on a campaign in the finance area.", "timestamp": "1345034236"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/251807744939503?comment_id=251929084927369", "anchor": "fb-251929084927369", "service": "fb", "text": "@Perry: you're looking at \"do politicians listen to you when you give them money?\" whereas I'm currently interested in \"how much more likely is s politician to get elected if they have an additional $X to spend?\".", "timestamp": "1345034319"}, {"author": "Phillip", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/251807744939503?comment_id=251931754927102", "anchor": "fb-251931754927102", "service": "fb", "text": "Jeff, campaigning for someone seriously for the first time I can say money helps a lot (we don't have a lot), but volunteers help a lot too. Beyond that it is very easy to spend money poorly. I would say it is somewhat correlative, but a weal correlation particularly for a challenger. There is a saying in advertising: nothing kills a bad product faster than good advertising (i.e. your trying to get consumers to try it, but then there is the risk they may not like it).", "timestamp": "1345034902"}, {"author": "Marcus", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/251807744939503?comment_id=251948714925406", "anchor": "fb-251948714925406", "service": "fb", "text": "There's research on this stuff. eg http://arpejournal.com/ARPEvolume7number1-2/Gius.pdf", "timestamp": "1345038520"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/251807744939503?comment_id=252017854918492", "anchor": "fb-252017854918492", "service": "fb", "text": "@Marcus: is there any research where people attempted to manipulate the distribution of spending?", "timestamp": "1345049600"}]}