Jansen Quoted in Roll Call Defending Campaign Donor Privacy
Jansen Quoted in Roll Call Defending Campaign Donor Privacy
“Campaigns Make Cash Off Donor Contact Information,” by Alex Knott, October 18, 2011
“We shouldn’t have to give up our privacy just to exercise our right to political expression,” said J. Bradley Jansen, director of the Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights.
Jansen is against the distribution and rental of donor contact information. But instead of laying blame with the candidates, he said the problem can be traced to campaign finance disclosure regulations and court decisions ruling that Americans do not have an expectation of privacy from third parties.
Jansen’s contact information was likely sold recently after making $2,100 in donations to Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul (Texas) in 2007. FEC records show Paul later rented his donor list to his son, Sen. Rand Paul (R), for $4,600 during his successful 2010 race in Kentucky.
But Jansen did not object to his name and others being rented by Paul’s son, saying, “They are in the same family by blood and ideology.”