Local Dark Money - Flipbook - Page 25
suggests that a candidate has widespread
community support or opposition, depending
on the mailers’ messages. PACs bombard
voters with mailers in the final weeks of an
election so the opposition doesn’t have time
to respond to attacks.
Political committees choose names that are
universally appealing, like “Manatee for
Common Cents”, “Committee to Protect
Florida’s Seniors”, “Citizens Have Rights in
Sarasota” or “A Better Plan for Sarasota”. Who
can argue with these ideas? Political
committee names sound like actual
organizations, when they are simply a funding
tool to get out a message to support or oppose
a candidate or issue.
How can you tell who is really behind the
mailers? You have to find out who is paying for
them. This is often dicult and always
inconvenient. You can go to the state website
or your county website and look up the political
committees named on the mailers. A lot of the
