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This is why I am carrying MN house file 276." -MN Representative Raymond Dehn

The consequences of ‘Citizens United’

01/20/14 04:00 AM—UPDATED 01/20/14 07:55 AM

By Ian Vandewalker

Four years ago this week, the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision allowed unlimited political spending by corporations and unions, leading to an explosion of outside money in elections. Now, those invested in the symbiotic relationship between politicians and their biggest donors are using the aftermath of Citizens United as an excuse to weaken campaign finance laws even further. For the sake of our democracy, we can’t let that happen.

Citizens United depended on faulty logic about independent expenditures. The Court reasoned that while a direct contribution can corrupt because the candidate can spend it as he or she wishes, outside spending cannot corrupt because the candidate ostensibly has no control over how it is spent. But this ignored common sense. Clearly, a nine-figure expenditure supporting a candidate’s election can buy a lot of political influence if and when the candidate makes it into office.

Certainly, big donors seem to believe their donations can buy influence. Thanks to Citizens United, outside spending skyrocketed in 2012 to more than $1 billion, including $400 million from dark money groups that don’t disclose their donors.

Legislators targeted by the outside negative ads are concerned. Some have used the specter of massive outside spending to argue that they need more direct contributions for their re-election campaigns in order to ‘weaken’ the influence of outside money. Eight states have increased the dollar amounts that donors can give directly to candidates, and similar legislation has advanced in several others. Alabama eliminated its $500 limit on corporate donations, allowing corporations to give unlimited amounts of money directly to candidates. Limits in other states, like Florida, are now several times higher.

Now the same justices whose Citizens United ruling created the outside expenditure quandary are arguing that it necessitates weakening limits on direct contributions. In oral argument for McCutcheon v. FEC, a case challenging limits on the total amount individuals can donate directly to all federal candidates, the court’s conservative justices seem to contradict the reasoning they used to justify their 2010 decision. Justice Scalia said there is no real distinction between the gratitude a candidate would feel toward a contributor on the one hand and a major independent spender on the other. He added, “The thing is, you can’t give [unlimited contributions] to the Republican Party or the Democratic Party, but you can start your own PAC… . I’m not sure that that’s a benefit to our political system.”

In any case, the idea that raising contribution limits will take the moxie out of outside spending is ludicrous. As long as it is possible to spend secretly and without accountability, there will be moneyed interests who do so. Dark money groups, with elaborate networks to spread money while concealing its source, encourage donations by promising to never reveal donors’ names. Big donors “double dip” by giving the maximum contribution to a candidate and then giving millions to a Super PAC dedicated to the same candidate.

One of the biggest independent spenders is conservative Super PAC American Crossroads, along with its affiliated dark money group Crossroads GPS. In early 2012 the Super PAC, which is required to report its donors, raised only 20% of the affiliated organizations’ donations. GPS, the dark money arm permitted to keep its donors’ identities secret, raised the other 80%. The same pattern–donors preferring dark money’s anonymity–holds for liberal dark money group Patriot Majority USA and its affiliated Super PAC. Raising contribution limits, then, is unlikely to eliminate or significantly slow outside spending on political campaigns. It would likely lead instead to donors taking advantage of the higher limits while continuing their independent spending. Higher limits will only increase the ability of moneyed interests to dictate policy, while further limiting average voters’ influence over their elected officials.

The best way to protect democracy from the post-Citizens United torrent of independent spending is comprehensive reforms that empower candidates to run without relying on the biggest donors. That starts with maintaining reasonable contribution limits. But the most powerful reform would be a system of public financing that matches small donations. This would reward candidates who build broad support among the mass of average voters, rather than candidates who depend on big, special interest money.

Four years after Citizens United, one thing is clear: the answer to big money in elections is not more big money. It’s finding a way to put voters back in charge of our democracy.

Ian Vandewalker serves as counsel for the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. 

Citizens United is still in full effect. The Koch brothers, and the special interest groups under their control, are already spending millions to buy elections.

We must remember what we learned two years ago. The best way to fight back against special interests is with strong grassroots organizing. And we need to keep at it.

I have become, sort of, a single-issue voter. In this case the single issue encompasses most everyones main issue(s). I don't think we can get the political power, the judicial power, and the financial power we need until "Citizens United" is rejected. This one, single issue, plays the prominent role in the living wage issue and the environmental issues of fracking, global climate change, sulfide mining, and tar sands refining. The concentration of power into the hands of the agricultural biotechnological, the big oil and energy, pharmaceutical and medical, financial and big banks, and the military industrial complexes, conglomerates, and mega-world corporations, has removed the power from the people. We no longer live in a democracy, nor a representative republic, but we have moved to a "corporatocracy". The biggest impact is probably in the area concerning all of the money that corporations are using to control elections and to control the way we think.

The ability of mega-world corporations to elect who they want, and pass the laws that they want, when they want, has skyrocketed in recent years, particularly since the "Citizens United" Supreme Court ruling of 2010. Move To Amend can be the connection we can all share to move our particular causes forward and get the power back to "We The People……". This is our Duluth Area Move To Amend Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/groups/DuluthAreaMTA/?ref=notif&notif_t=group_r2j     

I know...the Academy Awards, and the Oscars, are important too........but you don't get to vote on those! We can highlight at least one Mega-World Corporation even though all of them focus only on profiting from the labors of their workers at a level never seen before, receiving tax breaks from all of us, and are storing those profits in off shore banks that are nothing like your local credit union. That money just gets taken out of our economy!

http://act.stopcorporateabuse.org/content_item/corporate-hall-shame-2013?tag=Koch

This is the inequality that Pope Francis is referring to. It is happening around the world. It is happening in the United States.

http://www.upworthy.com/the-huge-lie-that-is-repeated-by-those-doing-extremely-well-in-our-country.

http://www.upworthy.com/the-huge-lie-that-is-repeated-by-those-doing-extremely-well-in-our-country

This is a good example of how we can work together with people who have similar goals, although we may disagree on how to achieve those goals. Please put this on your calendar and pass the word!
First United Methodist Church, Duluth (The Coppertop)
230 East Skyline Parkway, Duluth, Minnesota 55811

DESCRIPTION OF FORUM

On Saturday, January 11th, we are hosting a forum in Duluth
to explore how we can build a powerful, progressive, electoral
coalition -- powerful enough to make progressives a significant player
on the U.S. political scene at local, state, and federal levels.

This will be a "participatory" forum -- where you and other audience
members will engage with the panelists in forging strategies and
commitment for building such a progressive coalition.

The panelists will propose how we can do this organizing around
three "bread and butter" issues: 1) living wage/minimum wage;
2) single payer health care, and 3) full employment. We want you
as an audience member to contribute to this discussion.

Please come and share your thoughts.

Join us: Saturday, January 11th, 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
"Copper Top" Methodist Church at Skyline and Central Entrance
Lower Level. There is ample parking.

Co-sponsoring organizations include the Duluth Move To Amend chapter, and the Twin Ports MoveOn Local Council.

Vern Simula 218-591-5722

Virg Boehland
President - Duluth Area Move To Amend
218-260-0784

First United Methodist Church, Duluth (The Coppertop)
230 East Skyline Parkway, Duluth, Minnesota 55811

DESCRIPTION OF FORUM

On Saturday, January 11th, we are hosting a forum in Duluth
to explore how we can build a powerful, progressive, electoral
coalition -- powerful enough to make progressives a significant player
on the U.S. political scene at local, state, and federal levels.

This will be a "participatory" forum -- where you and other audience
members will engage with the panelists in forging strategies and
commitment for building such a progressive coalition.

The panelists will propose how we can do this organizing around
three "bread and butter" issues: 1) living wage/minimum wage;
2) single payer health care, and 3) full employment. We want you

as an audience member to contribute to this discussion.

Please come and share your thoughts.

Join us: Saturday, January 11th, 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
"Copper Top" Methodist Church at Skyline and Central Entrance
Lower Level. There is ample parking.

Co-sponsoring organizations include the Duluth Move To Amend chapter, and the Twin Ports MoveOn Local Council.

Vern Simula 218-591-5722

Virg Boehland
President - Duluth Area Move To Amend
218-260-0784