I think there are valid reasons that Open Phil might not want to convey staff members’ suggestions about political candidates that third parties might consider funding. In particular, assuming that Open Phil is directing money toward getting candidate X elected, it might not want to take the next step and appear to be fundraising for candidate X. (I know these are not official Open Phil recommendations, but most third parties would view listing candidates here as close enough to fundraising for them.)
(Original comment retracted, however,) I would think that staff members could recommend funding political campaigns without endorsing specific candidates. I think almost all of the hesitation of recommending doing so is the FTX fiasco and the impact on almost all of the political work that had been done in EA, which SBF was funding a large portion of—but I think that’s a really bad reason not to pursue this type of work, albeit obviously not doing so with dubious campaign finance ethics, much less stolen customer funds.
I think there are valid reasons that Open Phil might not want to convey staff members’ suggestions about political candidates that third parties might consider funding. In particular, assuming that Open Phil is directing money toward getting candidate X elected, it might not want to take the next step and appear to be fundraising for candidate X. (I know these are not official Open Phil recommendations, but most third parties would view listing candidates here as close enough to fundraising for them.)
(Original comment retracted, however,) I would think that staff members could recommend funding political campaigns without endorsing specific candidates. I think almost all of the hesitation of recommending doing so is the FTX fiasco and the impact on almost all of the political work that had been done in EA, which SBF was funding a large portion of—but I think that’s a really bad reason not to pursue this type of work, albeit obviously not doing so with dubious campaign finance ethics, much less stolen customer funds.