Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 6, 1973 Testimony of Hugh Sloan
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 6, 1973 Testimony of Hugh Sloan
[00.18.38] Senator BAKER. It is my understanding, and I think you have, intimated as much Without saying so, it is my understanding that in the last several weeks before April 7, there was a virtual torrent of contributions? Mr. SLOAN. Yes, sir. Senator BAKER. And many of them wore cash contributions? Mr. SLOAN. Yes, sir. Senator BAKER. And it has been my experience from MY own campaigns, and I rather suspect that others have the same experience, that maximum contributions occur in the last 2 or 3 weeks before an election. Did you have a similar experience in the Presidential election? Mr. SLOAN. Yes, sir. Senator BAKER. Tell us what, if any, difficulty you had in accounting for last-minute contributins, whether in cash or by check? Does that become a problem? Mr. SLOAN. The sheer volume, yes, sir. I think personally, I handled in the neighborhood of $6 Million in a 2-day period, Senator BAKER. that before the -,November election? Mr. SLOAN. -NO; this was just, prior to April 7, I think the change in the campaign law, in effect, produced a kind of deadline similar to an election. Senator BAKER. Did you have a similar bulge, a similar acceleration in the rate of contributions before the election, just before the election in November? Mr. SLOAN. Of course, I was not there in this election, Senator, but in 1968, 1 would agree with that, yes, as a pattern. Senator BAKER. That was the pattern? Mr. SLOAN. Yes, Yes, Sir. Senator BAKER. From your vantage point as one who has participated in two Presidential elections and been in intimately involved in the detail, do you see any difficulty that might derive from a statutory moratorium on any contributions, say, for 2 weeks before the election? Mr. SLOAN. I am not sure I would be qualified to evaluate that, Senator, Senator BAKER. The point of the matter being that it is difficult, if not impossible, to account for last minute money in time for last Minute accounting? Mr. SLOAN'. Yes, sir; I would agree. Senator BAKER. And if campaign disclosure legislation is to have any beneficial effect in the sense the public knows for what the candidates spend money, there ought to be a cutoff point, it seems to Me, sometime substantially prior to the date of the election. If that Were proposed, do you as an expert, so to speak, in this field think that would seriously jeopardize the operation of a, campaign? Mr. SLOAN. NO, sir' I think any date you set as the final date would be looked on by contributors and I think it would produce your bulge in the earlier period. Senator BAKER. I think that is true, but it would give you a better opportunity to report and disclose it, in time for the public to take it in account before the election. Mr. SLOAN. I would agree with that, particularly under the new law where you have detailed accounting procedures where you do, I think it is -almost essential. Senator BAKER. Under the new Campaign Expenditure Act which went into effect on April 7, 1972, and under which we presently operate, there is a limitation, as you know, on radio, television, and certain categories of expenditure, but there is not a total overall limitations of expenditures in Presidential or other Federal elections. If the Congress of the United States were to establish a maximum limitation on expenditures and to establish a requirement that expenditures be not only documented and accounted for, but that they could not be in cash, it there was a requirement that contributions could not ,ash if there was a requirement, that contributions could not be in cash 2 received, nor expended, nor obligations liquidated on behalf of candidates, say, for 2 weeks before the election and if there were a limitation as to the total amount you could spend and a limitation, say, of $3,000 on what an individual could give, do you think that combination of circumstances would provide, an unworkable. situation from the standpoint, of financing a Presidential or a Federal election? Mr. SLOAN. I think one of the most effective curbs might be a time limit on elections. When you look at the 1972 campaign, we started back in March 1971. It is almost a 2-year period of activity. I think a total spending ceiling could be worked with. I suspect quite frankly, out of this kind of situation that is unfolding here, it may Very well get to the point the only way to fund a Presidential campaign is through public funding. I think today in today's world, the intertwining of the business sector with Government with disclosure is going to make it no one's interest in business to contribute because every action after that will be looked into in that light. [00.23.41]