The Forum 2014; 12(2): 343–356 Dick M. Carpenter II, David M. Primo*, Pavel Tendetnik and Sandy Ho Disclosing Disclosure: Lessons from a “Failed” Field Experiment Abstract: In a recent issue of The Forum, Fortier and Malbin call for more research into the effects of disclosure requirements for campaign finance. In this paper, we report the results of a field experiment designed to assess whether such rules dissuade potential contributors due to privacy concerns. The paper is unique in that we explain why the field experiment never happened, and what we can learn from its “failure.” Specifically, we show that 2012 Congressional candidates were fearful about letting potential contributors know that their donations would be made available on the Internet, along with their address, employer, and other personal information. In trying to learn directly about whether contributors would be spooked by this knowledge, we ended up learning indirectly, through the actions of candidates, that privacy concerns may in fact limit participation in the political process, including among small donors. DOI 10.1515/for-2014-5008 Introduction Campaign finance disclosure has become a hot topic in the wake of the US Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which Senator John McCain called its “worst decision ever” (Robb 2012). In its ruling, the Court determined that cor- porations (and other groups) may spend money advocating the election or defeat of federal candidates, thereby overturning a long-standing federal ban on such activities. In the wake of this decision, many 501(c)(4) non-profit organizations engaged in election-related spending without disclosing donors, leading to calls for further regulation of these “dark money” groups (Schneiderman 2013). Mean- *Corresponding author: David M. Primo: Department of Political Science and Simon Business School, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA, e-mail: david.primo@rochester.edu Dick M. Carpenter II, Department of Leadership, Research, and Foundations, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, CO, USA Pavel Tendetnik and Sandy Ho: Department of Leadership, Research, and Foundations, Univer- sity of Colorado Colorado Springs, CO, USA Brought to you by | University of Michigan Authenticated Download Date | 5/20/15 1:18 PM