Campaign Finance the Ebay Way

Posted on February 14, 2004 by glasscastle


SACRAMENTO (AP) – A self-proclaimed carpetbagger who brought the Web savvy
from his surfside home south of San Francisco to take on a Central Valley
congressman has put his campaign on the virtual auction block.

Jeffrey Vance, a carpenter by trade and political neophyte, is selling out –
literally – offering shares in his fledgling campaign on eBay, the online marketplace.

The Web site boasts 20 million items for sale at a time, including scores of
political memorabilia, but no campaigns that eBay is aware of, said a company
spokesman.

Vance, 42, who is seeking the Democratic nomination to take on nine-term incumbent
Rep. Wally Herger, R-Rio Oso, said he realized about two weeks into the race
that he wasn’t going anywhere without money.

But his platform is also grounded in the belief that special interests are to
blame for some of the nation’s problems.

"Congress is pretty much bought and sold," Vance said. "If you
look at the funding sources you’ll see why we don’t have a utopia."

For believers in a future paradise, he is offering $20 certificates "of
Democratic freedom" that carry the following disclaimer: "No undue
rights or privileges or access or undue influence are accorded the bearer." But
Vance does promise he will be "unfettered by corporate and special interest
control."

from the
AP
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2 Responses to Campaign Finance the Ebay Way

  1. JayT says:
    February 15, 2004 at 3:28 am

    “Congress is pretty much bought and sold,” Vance said. “If you look at the funding sources you’ll see why we don’t have a utopia.”

    I’m sorry, but this is made up, right?

    But that’s VERY similar to something someone in my family said, who read a Boston Globe article (last summer) by Harvard Prof (summed up by her paraphrased as), “He asked the question ‘If Capitalism is so good, then why isn’t everybody rich?’ And found, Kapitalism basically DOESN’T WORK!”

    I think the reason we have Fruit-o-pia (tm?) instead of Utopia is pretty obvious if you do the math correctly: There are people involved and people make mistakes (some more eXtreme than others) like thinking there actual IS such-a thing as a free lunch, as long as everybody gets one.

  2. Tina Anderson says:
    February 20, 2008 at 3:56 pm

    What ever happened to individual responsibility and working for what you get, instead of just getting government handouts. Capitalism isn’t broken, it’s the bad attitudes of the American people that needs to be fixed!

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