Hey guys,<p>So we made this site with the goal of funding a lobbyist to represent the 99%. The money comes from small pledges of $5 and up. So far we've raised nearly $10k in under a week. We're focusing fund raising efforts on causes.<p>I'm the founder and lead developer, and I'd love to hear this community's thoughts on the project as well as answer any questions.<p>Thanks guys!<p>http://www.wethelobby.com/
As others have mentioned, if you don't have an attorney helping you with election law matters, I'd recommend hiring one or consulting with one. You really want to make sure you don't run afoul of election and campaign finance laws (there might be personal liability for you, if you do)--and, if you state that you do comply with these laws, you'll give people that donate a lot more faith that their money will actually be delivered to the correct groups. These laws all exist in a nebulous area which requires some time/effort to sift through.<p>I'm an attorney and, although I can't give you legal advice, I can try to steer you in the right direction, presuming you're not already in touch with a lawyer.
I applaud your effort, please open source your code! As the founder, you'll be too busy to keep the code flowing with all the other stuff to be done, and lots may want to help with this.<p>Also, this was an Onion article: <a href="http://www.theonion.com/articles/american-people-hire-highpowered-lobbyist-to-push,18204/" rel="nofollow">http://www.theonion.com/articles/american-people-hire-highpo...</a><p>Life imitates satire.
I had been considering a site called "Rent A Rep" where you would donate money to a pool tied to an outcome of a vote. So a No vote on SOPA would have a pool. Once the votes were in, the Legislators voting that way would get a cut of the pool. Contribution limits would be at $100 and no companies could take part. With something so enraging as SOPA, the pool could get pretty huge.<p>Direct monetary democracy.<p>I dismissed the idea as too cynical and possibly illegal? A promise of monetary compensation for your vote is probably illegal. Monetary compensation with a suggestion of what the vote should be is <i>completely</i> different. The payment is not contingent on the action. I'm not sure that the money pool with no named recipient in advance abstracts that away enough.
I'm portuguese (not a USA citizen), and I spend and send my own money to support investigations against lobby, bribery, political-corruption, and such parasite-fenomenons that deter democracy. Do that instead, and I'll fund you. It would even be funny, as private investigators could be contracted, and the reports could be released in internet, as if were episodes of a serie - it could also be amusing!
I'm working on a related project: <a href="http://makeyourlaws.org" rel="nofollow">http://makeyourlaws.org</a> / <a href="https://plus.google.com/100183759660923071401" rel="nofollow">https://plus.google.com/100183759660923071401</a><p>Unlike PlainSite, it's open source and AGPL. Also some differences of approach which are hard to summarize here. Happy to collaborate with anyone interested.
Who's doing the actual lobbying? How are you ensuring accountability that the groups receiving the funds are advocating actively enough, and doing it in a way that you support (e.g. no backroom deals, future consulting jobs for politicians, negative ads)?
We thought of doing this for PlainSite (<a href="http://www.plainsite.org" rel="nofollow">http://www.plainsite.org</a>) but unfortunately the law precludes it. We'd love to work with you though. aaron.greenspan at plainsite.org