Hillary Contest 'Winner' Hand-Picked for 'Views, Backgrounds, and Interests'

     Hillary Clinton is offering a chance for one lucky person and a guest to join her for dinner. The campaign is inviting supporters to "chip in" to be automatically entered in the contest, although no contribution is required:

     However, it's not all luck and "chance." In the end, the Hillary for America (the "Sponsor") campaign will hand-pick the winner from a pool of 100 "potential winners" based on "views, backgrounds, and interests." A look at the contest fine print (which in reality is not that fine, but must be accessed on a separate webpage) reveals the following paragraph:

One hundred (100) potential winners will be selected by a random drawing from all eligible entries received during the Promotion Period to be held at Hillary for America Headquarters no later than August 3, 2015...  Sponsor will, in its sole discretion, then select one winner from the list of eligible potential winners from the Promotion Period on the basis of criteria determined and applied by Sponsor to provide for an appropriate range of views, backgrounds, and interests among the winners selected.

     It is unclear from the rules how the campaign will determine what the "views, backgrounds, and interests" of the potential winners are. The rules do, however, allow for a background check on potential winners, although that check presumably has more to do with security than anything else:

Sponsor may, at its option, conduct a background check on each potential winner. Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify any potential winner from receiving any prize based on such background check if Sponsor determines, in its sole discretion that awarding any prize to such potential winner could result in a safety or security risk to any person or persons or could result in the disruption of any event associated with the Promotion... Winner must then identify potential guest to Sponsor, and Sponsor may, at its option, conduct the same background check and process applicable to potential winners.

     The Clinton campaign did not respond to a request for an explanation of the process to determine the "views, backgrounds, and interests" of the potential winners.

Note: A version of this post first appeared at The Weekly Standard.