Feigenbaum: Candidates, Special Interests Could Finance Delegates Convention Expenses

The Indiana Legislative Insight's Ed Feigenbaum points to a loophole in the law that could allow candidates and special interest groups to lavish money on delegates attending this year's Republican National Convention given the likelihood that no candidate will earn enough pledged delegates going into this year's national nominating convention in Cleveland to win the nomination outright on a first ballot. He notes the lack of laws restricting spending on delegates, federal or state.

Contributions to delegates at the federal level are the general restrictions imposed on corporations, labor organizations, foreign nationals or businesses and federal government contractors according to Feigenbaum. There appear to be no restrictions at the state level. That leaves the door open for a wide list of persons and entities who might underwrite a delegate's expenses to the convention to curry favor with them. That would include candidates, individuals, political actions committees, LLCs and nonprofit organizations.

Feigenbaum notes that individual expenses for delegates attending a convention could range from $3,000 to $6,000. It seems unlikely that payments made by others to influence delegate votes would run afoul of bribery laws since casting a vote at a party's national nominating convention is not technically a "governmental action." "Watch to see if any individual or entity in Indiana steps up with any cash or in-kind services to make delegate life easier . . . and help bind the delegation," Feigenbaum writes.

The last time Republicans faced an undecided convention at its start was the Ford-Reagan match-up in 1976. Reagan supporters complained a lot back in those days about how the Ford campaign was flying undecided delegates out to Washington to meet personally with President Ford at the White House where they were wined and dined and given Oval Office photo ops with Ford. Donald Trump owns a number of luxury vacation destination properties he could fly undecided delegates to woo them if he were so inclined, including his Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Florida.