More Disclosure Needed?

Assemblymember Patty Berg wants to close the loophole that allows people to run hit pieces on candidates without identifying themselves. This primarily a result of the last minute hit pieces that were mailed out against Chris Kerrigan in the last Eureka City Council race.

I'll have to say I find it cowardly that people send out criticisms of anyone when they won't identify themselves. But I wonder if such legislation is really necessary. We already have enough problems coming out of so called "campaign finance reform". What will be the unintended consequences of Berg's proposal?

Seems to me the folks who sent out the hit pieces in question might have done themselves more harm than good. Most folks seemed to think the race between Kerrigan and Bohn would be a close one. Turned out Kerrigan won by a pretty solid margin. Might the hit piece campaign backfired and had some people voting the other way because of the non disclosure on the part of the hit piece campaigners? I would think so although I suspect that the fact Rex Bohn is part of the management of Renner Petroleum would be a bigger factor in his loss than most suspect.

I say if people want disclosure and a certain campaign won't disclose, don't vote for them. That might be what's already happening, at least to some extent.