In the wake of USF Student Government Elections, it’s been an interesting time to learn about the plethora of public records that are available to political journalists who are writing about the candidates and the campaign trail in local, state and national elections.
Journalism professor Wayne Garcia spoke to our class on Monday about all of the resources that we can easily access online when we’re doing our research on political leaders and organizations — such as the Federal Elections Commission’s website and Political Money Line, a website that lists financial contributions to candidates and by whom they were made.
I was interested to find out that this information is so readily accessible, because I always thought this was something that candidates would be able to hide and would want to even keep hidden from the public. If someone donates more than $100 to a political candidate, they are required to disclosure their name and their occupation, which can help journalists determine who is endorsing who during the campaign trail.
I was also surprised to learn that one person can donate a maximum of $2,600 to a political candidate, because it always seems like candidates, especially on a national level, have a lot more money than what you would think could be generated that way. Professor Garcia explained to us the differences between “hard money” and “soft money” in politics, and understanding the differences can help explain why candidates are able to afford their campaigning materials. With hard money it can be easily tracked and monitored, but soft money can become more difficult to follow, because with soft money the origin is not as transparent and candidates aren’t required to report where it came from.
While learning about all of these resources, it interested me how closely USF’s Student Government elections follow a similar format. On the Student Government website, students can access records that list how much money the candidates have spent on their campaigns, as well as information on their endorsements and what all has been put into their campaign.
Even on the university level, the transparency in government is pretty high, which helps affirm Professor Garcia’s argument that as journalists, we are working as political watchdogs for the public.
“It’s our job to make [this information] visible, and that’s what we do,” Garcia said.
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