Vote-Buying Not a Crime - If You're Rich and Republican

How is this 

Americans for Prosperity (AFP), the nonprofit financed by David Koch and other wealthy Republican businessmen, has spent some $31 million on anti-Obama ads since April. The group recently opened 98 Get-Out-the-Vote offices, hired some 200 field staffers and has been distributing its state-of-the-art voter-targeting technology on Samsung tablet computers to its volunteers. Now AFP is hoping to win hearts and minds with gifts of free gas.

AFP is hosting events at gas stations across the country to provide gasoline to motorists for the price of $1.84 per gallon. The group is paying for up to fifteen gallons for 100–150 drivers at each station, telling them that the $1.84 price symbolizes the price per a gallon before Obama took office in 2009.

different from this?

Knott County Judge-Executive Randy Thompson and two others convicted in a federal vote-buying case have asked a federal appeals court to overturn a ruling upholding their convictions.A fourth man convicted in the case has asked for more time to file a similar request.

 

Last month, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the convictions of Thompson, John Mac Combs, Phillip Champion and Ronnie Adams.

 

The next appeal option open to the four was to ask the entire court to overturn the decision by the three-judge panel. Attorneys for Thompson, Combs and Adams filed such requests last week, arguing that the decision by the panel was wrong. Champion's attorney asked for more time.

 

The four were convicted of taking part in a scheme before the November 2006 election to buy votes by using public money for road and bridge work on private property. Thompson narrowly won his first full term in that election.

It's not, of course, except in who and how much..

 

Digby says:

Considering how much money is out there and how willing these plutocrats are to spend it on this campaign, it's probably worth wondering how much straight up vote buying is going to happen. They're doing this in plain sight and asking for publicity. Clearly, they are not concerned about any appearance of impropriety or legal exposure. Why not go for it?