IU: Donation listing is ‘misleading’

IU is listed as the third-highest contributor to Congressman Baron Hill’s campaign on the donor-tracking Web site OpenSecrets.org, but IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre said this is misleading.

State universities are forbidden to endorse political candidates, but on this Web site, donors are grouped together by place of employment.

MacIntyre clarified further that the University as an institution did not contribute to Hill’s campaign.

“The University does not take any position or support of candidates,” he said. “It’s misleading, because it’s not correct – it’s not IU; it’s employees of IU. It’s unfortunate that it’s misleading.”

Political candidates are required by law to publicly list any donations of $200 or more, and Web sites such as www.OpenSecrets.org allow users to look up the individual contributors by name, state, zip code or employer. Fundrace.org even lets users pinpoint donors on a map listing their home address.

OpenSecrets.org reports that IU faculty and staff collectively donated $11,794 to Hill’s campaign this term. As a result, IU is listed as Hill’s No. 3 donor. IU is not listed as a top contributor for Republican candidate Mike Sodrel.

Massie Ritsch, communications director for the Center for Responsive Politics (which runs OpenSecrets.org), defended listing all IU employees as a single entity. He mentioned links at the bottom of the page describing the methodology used to analyze the donations as well as a disclaimer in red which states “the organizations themselves did not donate.”

He said sometimes users overlook disclaimers, and the organization does “get a handful of calls” every year from universities and lawyers asking for an explanation.
“It is important to tally contributions by colleges and universities as a whole because it adds up to a lot of money,” he said.

The education industry, comprised of universities and research institutions, is the ninth-largest donor to federal politicians, Ritsch said.

MacIntyre said every employee has a constitutional right to contribute to a candidate of their choosing if they wish to do so.