$1.25 milion anti-Kavanaugh campaign tests federal - anti-bribary laws. Posted: Sep 13th, 2018 - 1:18 pm In Reply to: Susan Collins tells left-wing activists to stop bribing her - over Kavanaugh vote...
Liberal groups are testing a new crowdsourcing tactic in their battle against President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee — and are testing the limits of campaign finance laws with their attempt to force one GOP senator to vote “No.”
The initiative has secured pledges of $1.2 million, which the groups say they’ll direct to an opponent of Sen. Susan Collins, should she vote to confirm Mr. Trump’s pick, Judge Brett Kavanaugh. If she votes for the nomination, the donors’ credit cards will be charged.
Ms. Collins and her defenders say that sounds an awful lot like bribery, threatening her political future in exchange for her shaping her vote.
Campaign legal experts, though, were less certain, saying that as long as they aren’t offering her the money, it may be perfectly legal.
“It’s a new form of strategy, that is for sure, but I do think it is covered still under legitimate campaign activity,” said Gary Rose, a political science professor at Sacred Heart University.
Ms. Collins is one of two pro-choice Republican senators liberals are hoping to sway to vote against Judge Kavanaugh. Combined with all Democrats’ opposition, it would be enough to defeat the nomination.
Ms. Collins has not yet revealed how she plans to vote, but had previously said she wouldn’t back a nominee hostile towards women’s reproductive rights.
As the vote nears later this month, pressure is mounting — and some of it is nasty.
The senator’s staff has received threatening calls and vulgar, profanity filled messages, including letter warning that “every waitress who serves you is going to spit in your food,” and a caller who told a 25-year-old staffer he hoped she would be raped and impregnated.
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