Centerfield

Amazon Dot Gov

This may seem perverse, but I've signed up for the next Dean meetup. While I have been strongly opposed to Howard Dean as a presidential candidate, particularly because of his views on foreign policy, I have admired his Internet operation. I've been especially impress by its ability to raise small contributions from a large number of donors. This is a model for a new, cleaner politics.

Veterans of the Dean campaign, such as Jim Moore, are discussing whether the operation could be turned into an Amazon.com of politics.

There already is a MoveOn, and there's no need for Dean For America to morph into another. What I envision is a place where voters could go, read about all the candidates running for office, and "buy" some. There would be a section for "contributors to Candidate X also contributed to Candidate Y" and so on.

It would probably not be lawful to transmit funds to the hypotheical Amazon.pol and have them aggregate donations and distribute the funds in a lump sum. The EBay model might work better with campaign finance law, with the contribution going directly from donor to candidate.

It's clear that the method of public campaign financing that grew up in the 70's has broken down. Both Kerry and Bush have opted out. Fewer people are contributing through the checkoff on tax returns, partly because their money would go to an abstract system, rather than specific candidates whom they favor.

An Amazon.Pol would not reduce the amount of money spend on campaigns. Rather, it would increase it. But a greater proportion of the funds would be coming in small pieces, from the public at large, and a smaller share from organized special interests.

I had a blast with the small amount of open source programming I did for the Clark campaign. I'm now ready to join with Dean veterans in to create an Amazon.gov. My preference would be for a system that provides clean money to liberals, centrists, and conservatives. But even if this election, the money only flows to liberals, that's okay with me. Republicans will catch on sooner or later, and if the GOP was less beholden to special interests, that would be a good thing too.

Update:
Adam has pointed out that Amazon does have a "store" for Presidential candidates. They clearly have the technology to do this, but the site is much too sparse. It only includes the presidential candidates, not congressional candidates or candidates for state office. Second, it lacks all community aspects which would allow the visitor to learn what people really think about the candidate.

Still, the site does answer some questions.

Is Amazon.com getting paid to do this?
U.S. federal law prohibits us from donating services to any or all presidential campaigns, so we are charging the campaigns our usual and normal Amazon.com Payments fee ($0.25 per contribution and 2.5% of the contribution amount).

We've also decided that we'll eventually contribute the aggregate amount we're paid in fees to Kids Voting USA, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, national organization that works with schools and communities to enhance civics education and provide youth an authentic voting experience.

This therefore does provide a revenue model for an organization to arrange contributions, and charge a fee to cover the costs of hosting the service and software development.

As Amazon is a business, it is necessary for it to be strictly neutral with regard to parties and candidates. That might not be so for an organization that is incorporated as a political group.

I see the positive aspects of developing a system along these lines as changing the balance in the direction of money coming directly from citizens rather than special interest groups. There is arguably a downside in "nationalizing" elections--making funds available from outside the candidates district. But let's not be naive. That's happening already with money coming from special interest groups. Furthermore, except for pork barrel projects, most legislation is national in scope, and we do have a stake in how the various races turn out. Perhaps this Amazon.Gov should only accept contributions for candidates for state and local office to in-state donors.

Posted by rickheller at February 26, 2004 05:02 PM