Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Eye Recommend --- Flood of Late Campaign Spending Coming from Murky Sources



A FLOOD OF LATE SPENDING ON MIDTERM ELECTIONS, FROM MURKY SOURCES, by Nicholas Confessore and Derek Willis --
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/03/us/politics/a-flood-of-late-spending-on-midterm-elections-from-murky-sources.html?_r=0
The actions of the Supreme Court are coming home to roost, corrupting our entire election system.  Unregulated spending is bringing about a second Robber Baron era. (Any underlines are mine.)
"A stealthy coterie of difficult-to-trace outside groups is slipping tens of millions of dollars of attacks ads and negative automated telephone calls into the final days of the midterm campaign, helping fuel an unprecedented surge of last-minute spending on Senate races. 

Much of the advertising is being timed to ensure that no voter will know who is paying for it until after (today's) election.  Some of the groups are 'super PACs' that did not exist before Labor Day but have since spent heavily on political advertising, adding to the volatility of close Senate and House races.

Others formed earlier in the year but remained dormant until recently, reporting few or no contributions in recent filings with the Federal Election Commission, only to unleash six- and seven-figure advertising campaigns as Election Day draws near.  Yet more spending is coming from nonprofit organizations with bland names that have popped up in recent weeks but appear to have no life beyond being a conduit for ads."...

..."One late-spending group, known only as B-PAC, registered with a Washington address in September and has spent at least $2.2 million on election advertising in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan and New Hampshire--hundreds of thousands of dollars more than the group has reported raising so far...

...In Kansas, a group called the Alliance for a Free Society has dumped almost half a million dollars into the Senate race there, attacking the independent candidate Greg Orman...

The alliance, registered in Delaware as a nonprofit corporation, was formed in July, and until recently did not even have a website.  Documents filed with the Federal Election Commission indicated that the group was connected to a former executive of Koch Industries...

Yet another new super PAC, American Future Fund Political Action, reported having just $56,000 in mid-October...But on Tuesday, the group announced that it would spend more than $300,000 on behalf of Representative Fred Upton, Republican of Michigan, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

The group has also purchased thousands of dollars in radio ads attacking Representative Bruce Braley, Democrat of Iowa, who is running for the Senate.

'It's yet another way to hide money from the public,' said Kathy Kiely, managing editor for the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates more transparent campaign spending... 'And, because of the timing, it looks like people are deliberately trying to mask the source of the money until after Election Day. If money is free speech, why are you standing on a soap box in a burqa?'...

...A network of five super PACs, all registered in Virginia but with names like Alaska Priorities, Colorado Priorities and Iowa Priorities, was formed in early October, each listing as treasurer a former aide to Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the second-highest-ranking Republican in the Senate.

According to the Sunlight Foundation, some of the groups appear to be making automated phone calls targeting Democratic Senate candidates in their states.  One call reportedly attacked Senator Kay Hagan of North Carolina as an 'extreme liberal,' while another accused Senator Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana of 'printing money like there's not tomorrow and making everything cost more for average people like me.'

Kansas did not even have a competitive Senate race until September, when the Democratic candidate pulled out as polls showed that Mr. Orman, the independent, had a chance (of winning)...Now the race features a suite of competing super PACs and political nonprofits...Nearly all of the money traceable to specific donors has come from out of state...

...Another PAC, Kansans Support Problem Solvers, has spent at least $628,000, almost all of it after the date on which super PACs make their final pre-election donor disclosures. (Earlier disclosures suggest that Kansans Support Problem Solvers does not include any actual Kansans: Funding came from hedge fund executives in Houston and Charlotte, N.C.)
This non-resident, non-limited political spending bothers me the most.  I find it particularly offensive that some rich guy living in Texas or Virginia or North Carolina or wherever is permitted to spend any amount in order to influence the outcome of the election in states where he has no personal stake.   
These billionaires don't care two figs about my life in Ohio. They know nothing about living here or what issues are important to those of us who do live here.  Their entire purpose for sticking their billion dollar noses where they aren't wanted is to protect or improve their own status quo. What actual residents want or care about is secondary to their lust for power.
Campaign financing reform is sorely needed.  Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has only made the situation worse by handing control of our political system and our politicians over to the wealthy. 
When the opinions of voters seem to indicate that they are at odds with the wishes of the wealthy, the wealthy are only too happy to step in and twist the campaign dialogue to their own purposes.  Money is no object.   
Twenty-first century Robber Barons indeed.

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