"Charitable" Campaign Finance

The fellows at the Center for Competitive Politics note a deafening silence over the use of charities to help land candidates at fundrasing events:

A recent FEC ruling, highlighted in Friday's L.A. Times, allows wealthy individuals to contribute to a celebrity's favorite charity in exchange for having that celebrity appear at a candidate's fundraiser.

Strangely, none of the so-called "reform" organizations expressed their concern over this ruling. Here at CCP we wonder why.

Certainly, the so-called "reform" community would have protested if, instead of donating to a celebrity's charity, the wealthy individual directly compensated the celebrity for appearing. After all, that would be an in-kind contribution.

But from a candidate's perspective all that matters is that the celebrity shows up.

I don't really care about this one way or the other. First, if a billionaire gives money to charity, fine and good for him and his tax bill. If that contribution is to a celebrity's charity--whatever. If a candidate gets that celebrity to appear at a fundraiser because of the donation--who cares.

Really, how much of a problem is this? Furthermore, do we really need to care?