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Interest-group spending for midterm up fivefold from 2006; many sources secret

Slartibartfast

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washingtonpost.com

Interest groups are spending five times as much on the 2010 congressional elections as they did on the last midterms, and they are more secretive than ever about where that money is coming from.

The $80 million spent so far by groups outside the Democratic and Republican parties dwarfs the $16 million spent at this point for the 2006 midterms. In that election, the vast majority of money - more than 90 percent - was disclosed along with donors' identities. This year, that figure has fallen to less than half of the total, according to data analyzed by The Washington Post.
The trends amount to a spending frenzy conducted largely in the shadows.
The bulk of the money is being spent by conservatives, who have swamped their Democratic-aligned competition by 7 to 1 in recent weeks. The wave of spending is made possible in part by a series of Supreme Court rulings unleashing the ability of corporations and interest groups to spend money on politics. Conservative operatives also say they are riding the support of donors upset with Democratic policies they perceive as anti-business.

There we have it folks. The businesses are starting to hijack our democracy thanks to the supreme court. Welcome to the beginning of the end :(. Hopefully I can store up enough money to emigrate before it gets really bad.
 
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washingtonpost.com



There we have it folks. The businesses are starting to hijack our democracy thanks to the supreme court. Welcome to the beginning of the end :(. Hopefully I can store up enough money to emigrate before it gets really bad.

When that decision was made this is exactly what I figured would happen. As if huge corporations didn't already have enough influence via lobbyists, now they can essentially buy elections.

I'm sure conservatives will be thrilled anyway because they're "benefiting" from the lopsided spending.
 
There we have it folks. The businesses are starting to hijack our democracy thanks to the supreme court.

yeah :roll: because only businesses were loosed by that decision. oh wait. unions were also.

gee wiz, good thing unions don't overwhelmingly come out in favor of certain candidates and parties, eh?


The mystery of who was behind a largely bogus attack ad in Alabama’s Republican gubernatorial runoff election has been solved. The answer: the Alabama Education Association... According to IRS reports, the Conservative Coalition for Alabama formed on June 22 as a 527 political committee. A day after it was formed, the Conservative Coalition for Alabama received $750,000 from the AEA. It was the group’s sole donation. Nearly all of that money ($711,020) was spent the same day it was received on advertising attacking Bradley Byrne in the July 13 runoff election for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

The group did not file a report with the IRS until the day of the primary runoff. The IRS didn’t release the report until after the runoff, which Byrne lost to Robert Bentley....The fact that AEA was using the "conservative" group as a front comes as no surprise. As we wrote before, Byrne suspected AEA was behind the attacks. During the primary, the AEA funneled money to True Conservative PAC to run attack ads against Byrne. But AEA Executive Secretary Paul Hubbert refused to say during the runoff election whether his group was funding the Conservative Coalition’s advertising, and state election records provided no answers...
 
For those complaining about how Citizens United has ruined the country: Can you explain, in detail, how that decision has caused this shift?

Reporters and commentators love to just blame this on Citizens United, but I've yet to come across anyone who could actually explain exactly what is legal now that was illegal before.
 
"The issue of campaign fundraising is casting a shadow over this year's races after a Supreme Court ruling in January allowed unlimited campaign spending by corporations, labor unions and interest groups — some of which are not required to disclose their funding sources...."

As a consequence, the Chamber of Commerce has spent over $85 million to Republican campaigns and ads and no one really knows who their donors are. What they do know is that the Chamber of Commerce has been putting all the money it recieves from it's members and donors, including foreign entities, into a "general fund" in DC and it has been paying out of that general fund to Republican campaigns.

"Foreign spending in U.S. elections is against the law."
Chamber of Commerce faces foreign funding row - latimes.com
 
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"The issue of campaign fundraising is casting a shadow over this year's races after a Supreme Court ruling in January allowed unlimited campaign spending by corporations, labor unions and interest groups — some of which are not required to disclose their funding sources...."

As a consequence, the Chamber of Commerce has spent over $85 million to Republican campaigns and ads and no one really knows who their donors are. What they do know is that the Chamber of Commerce has been putting all the money it recieves from it's members and donors, including foreign entities, into a "general fund" in DC and it has been paying out of that general fund to Republican campaigns.

"Foreign spending in U.S. elections is against the law."
Chamber of Commerce faces foreign funding row - latimes.com

You cut off your excerpt right before this part:

Tita Freeman, vice president of communications at the Chamber, called the Center for American Progress report "unfounded and completely erroneous." The foreign companies cited in the report "pay nominal dues" that "do not support U.S. Chamber political activities," Freeman said.

Just throwing out numbers, imagine that the CoC takes in $100m in US donations and $5m in foreign donations. Now imagine that they spend $50m on electioneering. That does not mean that they used foreign funding to produce those ads.
 
You cut off your excerpt right before this part:



Just throwing out numbers, imagine that the CoC takes in $100m in US donations and $5m in foreign donations. Now imagine that they spend $50m on electioneering. That does not mean that they used foreign funding to produce those ads.
It doesn't matter what the CoC says, the public has a right to know if a foreign company is buying influence in our elections and if the CoC can't prove they aren't, then they are in deep doo doo with the law.
 
It doesn't matter what the CoC says, the public has a right to know if a foreign company is buying influence in our elections and if the CoC can't prove they aren't, then they are in deep doo doo with the law.

For some reason, that doesn't sound like the legal standard.
 
For some reason, that doesn't sound like the legal standard.
Taking the CoC at their word isn't a legal standard, either.

Unholy Alliance of US Chamber and Foreign Money Could Destroy Democracy | ChattahBox News Blog

Yesterday, U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) called on the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to investigate reports that foreign corporations may be funding efforts by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to influence elections in this country. He pressed the commission to report its findings and to take any measures necessary to prohibit foreign influence of American elections.
Franken Calls for FEC Investigation into Chamber of Commerce Election Activities | Al Franken | Senator for Minnesota

Oh, oh, Murdock's Newscorp is in deep doo doo, too.....

News Corp.’s $1 million gift to the Republican Governors Association was the result of Rupert Murdoch’s personal friendship with former Fox News host and Ohio gubernatorial hopeful John Kasich, Murdoch told POLITICO Wednesday night.

Murdoch, who was in Washington to receive an award from The Media Institute, brushed aside concerns that the gift, which was unusually large and one-sided for a media company, might hurt Fox’s credibility as a news organization that reports on politics....

This gift, together with another $1 million News Corp. gift to the GOP-friendly U.S. Chamber of Commerce, has given Fox’s critics their strongest ammunition to date for arguing that the channel is not an objective observer, as it claims, but a player in the political process.

But the day the story of the Chamber donation broke, spokesmen from both Fox News and the News Corp. declined to comment.
Kasich inspired News Corp.?s RGA gift - On Media - POLITICO.com

Man, the corporate money is flowing like water and our American democracy is getting sold right out from under us.
 
It doesn't matter what the CoC says, the public has a right to know if a foreign company is buying influence in our elections and if the CoC can't prove they aren't, then they are in deep doo doo with the law.

Center for American Progress? LOL, George Soros has more money than God. You think he's not trying to influence elections by making these allegations?
 
Taking the CoC at their word isn't a legal standard, either.

Unholy Alliance of US Chamber and Foreign Money Could Destroy Democracy | ChattahBox News Blog







Man, the corporate money is flowing like water and our American democracy is getting sold right out from under us.

Oh, poor babies. Are you afraid the Union's Unholy Alliance with the Democratic Party has some competition now?
If this administration hadn't made such a mess of the country the last two yrs. the Dems would probably also be reaping the rewards of the SCOTUS ruling.

This COC thing sort of reminds me of the HC bill and taxpayer funded abortions. The dems insisted no tax payer money would be used because they would keep that money separate. Well the COC says the money contributed is different than the foreign money.
 
Oh, poor babies. Are you afraid the Union's Unholy Alliance with the Democratic Party has some competition now?
If this administration hadn't made such a mess of the country the last two yrs. the Dems would probably also be reaping the rewards of the SCOTUS ruling.

This COC thing sort of reminds me of the HC bill and taxpayer funded abortions. The dems insisted no tax payer money would be used because they would keep that money separate. Well the COC says the money contributed is different than the foreign money.

This goes beyond liberal and conservative. This is about people vs business, which is going to be a much more grave fight, as money couldn't care less about the people.

For the record, I would be just as against this even if the dems were the sole beneficiaries. Corruption is corruption and all of that money comes with strings attached.
 
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This goes beyond liberal and conservative. This is about people vs business, which is going to be a much more grave fight, as money couldn't care less about the people.

For the record, I would be just as against this even if the dems were the sole beneficiaries. Corruption is corruption and all of that money comes with strings attached.

interesting. do you feel the same way about Unions?
 
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