“Bottom line – this is another way to ‘win friends and influence people,’ to borrow a line from the title of Dale Carnegie’s famous book,” said Mark Petracca, political science professor at UC Irvine. “In a sense, these funds are being ‘laundered’ through elected officials, to the benefit of the elected officials in so far as their ‘generosity’ can be praised, celebrated … and of course, advertised.

For the full story, please visit http://www.ocregister.com/2017/04/27/private-donors-pour-millions-into-politicians-pet-projects/.