Three weeks or so ago, I wrote a post about Adam Bonica’s research in what he calls “scam PACs” — these are PACs that use questionable text messages to prey on elderly donors, often getting them to cough up hundreds or thousands of donations. Bonica’s research has been getting more attention recently (Paul Campos wrote about it on Friday at LGM), and Bonica was on this week’s Downballot podcast, where he was interviewed by co-hosts David Nir and David Beard.
I listened to the podcast and Bonica made a couple of points that were new, or perhaps ones I missed. He told the story of how the piece wasn’t published by the NYT and by the Bulwark, due to legal threats from the DCCC and DSCC via their legal firm, the (Marc) Elias Law firm. He said that the threats were not based on fact, but instead made accusations about what Bonica’s piece said that were essentially made up. The NYT dropped the piece rather than deal with lawsuits.
Bonica also went into detail on his interactions with the Bulwark, noting that the publication process for his piece bogged down when editor Sarah Longwell got involved. Longwell is one of the never Trumpers who are trying to tell Democrats how to run our party after they lost to MAGA when they took over the Republican Party. “Never trust a never Trumper” is a maxim that was reinforced yet again by Longwell’s actions.
Bonica reinforced the major points of his research, and they’re worth remembering:
The elderly have been shown to be very susceptible to the kind of hysterical text messages that are cranked out in volume from a small group of Democratic consultants.
The Republican Party used the same techniques, on steroids, and as a result, they’ve essentially lost their grassroots funding base.
Most of the money raised goes to the fundraisers, not the candidates.
The Democratic Party could easily regulate this type of fundraising and blacklist the fundraisers doing it, without any kind of legislation.
Unless the Democrats regulate the messages, they’re going to be in the same place as Republicans: their grassroots funders ignore fundraising missives.
Bonica also noted that most research shows that money spent for advertising in general elections has little effect on the outcome. That’s interesting and I want to look into it more.
With that, I’d like to wish a Happy Labor Day to all current and former laborers reading this.
