Harvard Study Group would like to speak to me about my Ron Paul contributions?

[cgainey]

I will post the Email chain I am having with them. Waiting on one more response then i will post it. FYI it said i had donated $75 but i had donated WAY more.

 

[TheTexan]

I think the minimum donation total to show up on these things is 200.00

Individual or total? I've donated well over that but I'm not listed

 

[Lord Xar]

It just came in todays mail.. so yea, I got one too.

Out of the list they supplied, I was the only Republican who donated.... all the others were Dems in my area.. Wonder if it is a ploy by the Libs to prevent me from further donating to the "repub" cause by trying to marginalize me from my neighbors?

 

[cgainey]

Well. I am waiting for a reply but here is the email chain so far

Chris Gainey

7:52 PM (10 minutes ago)

to Information
How did the study plan to collect study data regarding " implications of the
public’s awareness" without any collection of data from the people that was mailed? Was reactions taken by responses via email on the website it by the website? I am just curious.

I personally do not mind if the world knows how much i sent to Ron Pauls Campaign. I would send him more if i could afford it.

respectfully,
Chris


On Sat, May 19, 2012 at 7:02 PM, Information about Political Campaign Contributions <[email protected]> wrote:

Dear Chris Gainey,

Thank you very much for contacting us and letting us know about your
concerns. First of all, we apologize for any inconvenience we might
have caused you. We would like to use this message to clarify some
aspects of our research.

The main purpose of our mailing is to study the implications of the
public’s awareness about the open nature of campaign contributions,
and not to inform you about contributions from specific individuals in
your area. One of the motivations for the study is to learn about the
advantages and disadvantages of different disclosure policies.

As stated in our website, all the information we use is publicly
accessible through the website of the Federal Election Commission
(FEC). An automated computer program selected a random sample of
individuals who made donations to presidential committees in the last
year, and sent letters with some information about contributions to
these individuals.

Once again, we want to apologize if our mailing has inconvenienced you
at all. We want to ensure you that we will not attempt to contact you
again and that you have been removed from our listings.

Please let us know if we have addressed satisfactorily your concerns.

We are happy to provide further information and clarifications.

Thank you very much again. With best regards,

Ricardo Perez-Truglia ([email protected]) and Guillermo Cruces
([email protected])



On Sat, May 19, 2012 at 7:10 PM, Chris Gainey <[email protected]> wrote:
> Why waste money to mail out letters?

 

[ican'tvote]

Individual or total? I've donated well over that but I'm not listed

I think it's total contributions.

"If you contribute more than $200 to a committee, the committee is required to use its best efforts to collect and publicly disclose on a financial report your name, address, occupation and employer, as well as the date and amount of your contribution. Committees sometimes request this information even for smaller contributions, since the $200 reporting threshold applies to your total contributions to one committee during a calendar year. For example, you may make several small contributions to a committee during a year. Once these contributions add up to over $200, the committee must report the contributor information."

http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/citizens.shtml

I don't know why you wouldn't be listed.

 

[FindLiberty]

IMO, tear those letters up and throw them away... ("recycled paper" bin please)

 

[sailingaway]

that is odd if they don't ask for info, it DOES sound like they are just saying 'we know to whom you donated and we know where you live'

 

[Carson]

That's a very good question. They list neighbors who have made contributions to Democrats. Did those listed also get the letter?

Something is really fishy with this in that it asks for no information, therefore it's useless for the purposes claimed.

That is a very interesting question.

 

[Lishy]

In my opinion, it's creepy how it tells us what our neighbors and family are doing. How did they get the info?

 

[cgainey]

Ok so I got a comfirmation email on the intent of what they are doing in response to my email.

Information about Political Campaign Contributions [email protected]

9:10 PM (1 hour ago)

to me
Dear Chris,

This mailing is just the first step of the empirical project - we will
measure how individual contributions change as a response to the
letters. If you are interested in receiving information about the
goals, methodology and results of the study, just send us a blank
email to [email protected] and we will send you a
brochure with details about our research as soon as the study is over.

Thanks for your interest and cooperation,

 

[notsure]

Ok so I got a comfirmation email on the intent of what they are doing in response to my email.

This mailing is just the first step of the empirical project - we will
measure how individual contributions change as a response to the
letters.

Whaaat?! What does that even mean?

 

[cgainey]

What I want to know is.. How will they know if sending out that letter is why contributions change?

hypothetically, Next election what if only two people like Obama and Romney are running. neither would get a penny from me. so how will they know its not because of the letters they sent out?

 

[notsure]

So they're admitting to influencing our vote or contributions? By what means, intimidation?

 

[notsure]

Ok so I got a comfirmation email on the intent of what they are doing in response to my email.

Are you requesting for the debriefing?

 

[Lishy]

Wait, so they're saying they're studying how contributions to Paul change as a reaction to this study? Wha?

 

[notsure]

What I want to know is.. How will they know if sending out that letter is why contributions change?

hypothetically, Next election what if only two people like Obama and Romney are running. neither would get a penny from me. so how will they know its not because of the letters they sent out?

Something tells me that's not their real goal with these letters.

 

[cgainey]

Maybe the original thought is something like: if the people knew that others are looking at how much they are sending and to which group, would it effect how much they give and if they give at all.

Now i am certainly not smart enough to go to Harvard But to me it seems like the this study is doomed to get improper results. There is no way to be sure that each person gave less next time because of that letter. (Unless they are only counting people who contact them and say they will not send money.)

 

[cgainey]

Yes I have requested the end results

 

[ican'tvote]

I think we may be overreacting a tad. It seems to me like this is just a poorly run study for some college student's thesis.

 

[mad cow]

I think we may be overreacting a tad. It seems to me like this is just a poorly run study for some college student's thesis.

Poorly run wouldn't cover it.
I donated $1500 to Ron Paul AFTER receiving this letter for reasons of my own.Others have donated $0 after receiving this letter for reasons of THEIR own,none of which have anything to do with this letter.There is no way to get any useful information from the data they have.
I would like to see their end results simply to see if they made up the donations of the other people without last names in these letters.

Oh,and to laugh.