DN Editorial: Pesky PAC rats
Big-money donors have taken over the election process
SHELDON ADELSON. Foster Friess. Frank VanderSloot - these days, every presidential candidate has a billionaire (or two), and these are the most prominent of the rich guys currently exercising unprecedented influence over the American electoral system.
As predicted, corporate contributions are dominating politics ever since Supreme Court's Citizens United decision in 2010 allowed them to spend unlimited sums of money on Political Action Committees - just so long as the committees don't "coordinate" with individual candidates. A followup decision by a U.S. Court of Appeals allows wealthy donors to contribute unlimited sums to SuperPACs, organizations that pretend to be "educational" or "charitable" and so do not have to reveal donors' names.
The Supreme Court's blithe assertion that corporate and campaign expenditures "do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption" has proven to be as wrong as it could be.
Not as predicted, though, Citizens United has not necessarily helped Republicans and hurt Democrats. While corporate cash clearly helped fueled big gains for Republicans in November 2010, this year the tsunami of cash has been a mixed blessing, to say the least. It has allowed weak candidates to continue their campaigns even though they lacked the broad kind of support usually measured by an ability to raise money. The funding has underwritten thousands of vicious attacks on other Republicans. The result: high "unfavorables" all around.
Take Newt Gingrich (please?). Sheldon Adelson, a Las Vegas gambling magnate and fevered Islamophobe, has contributed an estimated $15 million to a PAC supporting Gingrich. So, even though the former House speaker's chances to snare the nomination are minimal, he continues to run. (We might even see him campaigning here for the Pennsylvania primary on April 24, be still our hearts.) Possibly by design, he is siphoning off votes from fellow conservative Rick Santorum, helping Mitt Romney, Adelson's reported second choice.
Of course, Santorum's has his own billionaire, Foster Friess, the one who recommended women hold aspirin between their knees for birth control. Frank VanderSloot, an Idaho billionaire who makes his money selling dietary supplements, is Romney's top sugar daddy (he has several).
It's unlikely that the Supreme Court will reconsider Citizens United anytime soon, even though Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer have called for just that. But even that unlikely occurrence wouldn't be sufficient to repair our political system.
Small fixes won't work. We need a Constitutional amendment allowing regulation of campaigns like one introduced last year in the U.S. Senate.
Tell Congress you want to take our elections back. Do it even before the negative ads and robo-calls take over our airwaves and phone lines next month.