[Ghoulish Delight]

As far as I can tell the relevant law's been on the books since the 40s.

And I didn't say that being offered a high level job isn't something of value. I said that what they were offering it in exchange for doesn't amount to tampering with an election. Asking someone not to run is not, in my eyes, influencing an election. Especially when we're talking about a primary. That's party politics, not federal politics. A billion different considerations and offers come into play when a candidate is deciding to run, or continue to run in a primary, other job opportunities I'm sure being high on that list. I can't imagine how one would begin to parse which forms of, "If I run in this primary A will happen, but if I don't, B will happen," constitute illegal influence. In my opinion that law was written to prevent illegal influence on who people vote for in the election and what the candidate might due if elected, not to prevent a party from trying to convince one of its members that the party would be better served if someone else ran.