The Republican National Committee launched on Tuesday a database for individuals to search through all the small donors ($200 or less) that have given to the committee.
The move would seem, for good government groups, a welcome nod towards campaign finance transparency and a step beyond what the Obama camp has been willing to do. But the reception has been harsh, with veterans in the field deriding it as nothing more than a publicity stunt.
"Why can't you search by state or zipcode or employer?" asked Massie Ritsch of the Center for Responsive Politics. "One reason to bring transparency in this process is to see the affiliations of these donors. And the campaigns are supposed to collect this information in the event that small donors become big enough that they have to be disclosed by name, employer and occupation. Presumably the GOP has this... As a transparency tool it is pretty dull. As a political tactic it is a bit sharper because the other side has done nothing of the sort and has not even responded to watchdog calls to say more about their small donors."
Indeed, the RNC database is far from complete. As. Jake Tapper, over at ABC, notes:
[W]hen you search "Joe Smith" you have no idea of knowing whether it's Joe Smith the Republican state representative in Missouri, Joe Smith who's on death row in Florida, Joe Smith of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Joe Smith who's a relief pitcher for the Mets, or Joe Smith the actor who played "Connie Hawkins" in the 1996 TV movie "Rebound: The Legend of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault.
Meanwhile, if you punch in the name "David Duke," you get $230 in donations, with no way of knowing if it is the notorious white supremacist making the donations.
Moreover, up until 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, if you typed in "No Name," the database showed $360 worth of donations.
It is impossible to find -- no matter how much one searches -- those donors who gave to the RNC anonymously. Individuals can give a limited amount of cash to campaigns or committees without listing their names -- something that happens no matter who is running. As such, interested parties are still left in the dark about how much money the RNC has received from these nameless donors.
As David Donnelly of Campaign Money Watch summarized: "I think the RNC database is useless. How does it take into account the person that sends five dollars in cash in an envelope -- which is legal -- into its headquarters?"
All of which is not to take away from the move the RNC made -- even if it seems driven more by politics than a commitment to good government. But by putting out something so incomplete and, in the end, relatively useless, they have undercut their own criticisms of Barack Obama.