#Affectus in crack#
In 2020, total election spending was $14.4 billion, up from $5.7 billion in 2018, and more than $1 billion in dark money was spent.Īdditionally, even though it’s illegal for outside groups to coordinate election spending with candidates or political parties, many do because by and large, the FEC has failed to crack down on candidates and super PACs that work hand-in-glove. Campaign spending by corporations and other outside groups increased by nearly 900% between 20. It has also become a growing problem as each respective election cycle has seen record-breaking amounts of spending. Major super PACs aligned with the leadership of both parties have received tens of millions of dollars, and in some cases most or all of their funding, from groups that keep their donors hidden from the public. Simply knowing that a super PAC is mostly or entirely funded by a vaguely named group that doesn’t disclose its funding denies voters crucial information. But that transparency is undermined when super PACs report contributions from secretly funded “dark money” groups, which themselves keep their donors hidden from the public. Super PACs are theoretically required to be transparent about where their money comes from by reporting their fundraising and spending to the FEC.
One way this has occurred is through creation of super PACs, which can accept unlimited contributions from nearly any non-foreign source and spend unlimited amounts to influence the outcome of federal elections. Thus, we are left with a campaign finance system where wealthy special interests can use unlimited secret spending to drown out the voices of everyday Americans. However, it has become clear in the years since that voters are not getting enough information about the true sources of campaign spending and this supposedly independent spending in support of candidates or their campaigns is often intentionally coordinated. The Court assumed that unlimited corporate campaign spending would pose no threat of corruption or the appearance of corruption because it would be “independent.” In Citizens United, the Court upheld certain disclosure provisions from the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA), reasoning that prompt disclosure would be enough to prevent wealthy special interests from dominating the political process because voters could see who was paying for the ads and “give proper weight to different speakers and messages.” Federal Election Commission (FEC), the Court ruled to strike down a prohibition on corporate independent expenditures, which has since enabled corporations and other outside groups to engage in unlimited amounts of campaign spending. Supreme Court 12 years ago continues to threaten that fundamental right. Voters have a right to know which wealthy special interests are spending big money to influence our vote and our government to rig the political system in their favor, but as the 2022 midterm elections approach, a case decided by the U.S.
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