Brian Duff interviewed by MPBN on transparency of election contributions

On April 30, 2014, MPBN aired a report on Maine Senator Angus King’s call for greater transparency around campaign financing.  As part of the report, the radio station interviewed Brian Duff, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Political Science.

According to the report, King recently introduced the Real Time Transparency Act, mandating that campaign contributions of $1,000 or more to be reported to the Federal Elections Commission within 48 hours.  This filing deadline would replace the current one requiring that such contributions be filed by the next reporting deadline, which could be months in the future.

Duff stated that King’s proposed change “seems like a really reasonable reform…It’s bringing some transparency to the process, and that seems great,” he added.

Duff explained that a possible downside to the proposed change, however, could result in larger contributions being channeled into super PACS--entities that can indirectly support a candidate by paying for ads that are critical of a particular candidate’s competition.

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