Joseph J. Thorndike Quotes

Because of tax laws governing charities, including almost every single civil rights organization you've ever heard of, including the NAACP, the Urban League, the ACLU, and others, those organizations are not allowed to endorse political candidates or use their resources in political campaigns of any kind.

Public employee unions are hardly the only group involved in bare-knuckles politics. Businesses lobby fiercely, and executives make hefty campaign donations.

You name me a profession and I’ll name you a lobbyist that represents them.

If churches want to play the game of politics, let them pay admission like everyone else.

The FTC doesn't regulate political speech.

Incumbents don't like it, but political competition is a good thing. Incumbents usually outspend challengers by better than 3 to 1. Super PACs, which tend to support challengers, have nullified some of this advantage.

When I ran for governor of Minnesota, I only raised $300,000.

Sometimes, political campaigns make decent people act and talk like perfect buffoons.

To me, politics is a pile of tricks.

The reality is that asking the public to fund political campaigns accomplishes nothing. Candidates continue to seek interest-group support through other channels, both financial and in-kind, and corruption problems abound.

But they are not going to take on Big Oil because Big Oil is very generous at campaign time, and this is all about the elections. They want to pretend that they are doing something meaningful.

Citibank had nothing to do with getting reelected.

What distinguishes the campaign finance issue from just about every other one being debated these days is that the two sides do not divide along conventional liberal/ conservative lines.

Few developments in campaigning have been as vilified and misunderstood as independent expenditure PACs, or, as they are colloquially known, super PACs.

Politics is show business for ugly people.

A CBS spokesman said the network's policy was tightened in September 2006 to forbid contributions to political campaigns. Previously, there was a bit of wiggle room.

I don't think politicians should be allowed to take money for their campaigns from outside interests.

When I was in office the fundraising was done by the party treasurers.

If a lobbyist sets up shop, or a lawyer, in which they're receiving income through what is something like a tax loophole so that it's not counting as corporate income, that is what this is counting as a small business.

I was a surrogate for Obama; I helped fundraise. I'm still a supporter.

The degree to which campaigns have become dominated by marketing is breaking the spirit of democracy, and we're all just so sick of it, across party lines.

Eventually, money wins in politics.

[On political campaigns:] Get an elbow, give an elbow.

The arms race for money being what it is, fundraising starts shortly after someone is elected to Congress.

Raising campaign money from Washington PACs is much easier than from individuals because its a business relationship.