Citizens United in action

As the New York Times described it yesterday, this election is the ultimate result of the Supreme Court's decision that took the limits off campaign finance -- and  throws the proof in Justice Samuel Alito's assertion that unlimited money would not have a corrupting effect on elections.

It has happened in two ways:   (1) the unprecedented amounts of money flowing into state and even local elections from anonymous out-of-state superfunds that do not have to reveal their donor sources -- and going mostly into negative television attack ads;   and (2)  the background financing of think tanks and policy planning groups that devised all these voter suppression laws that states just copy and pass into laws.

But it's not just on the huge scale targeting high profile races.    Look at this example:


Senator Bernie Sanders (Independent-VT) is one of the leading opponents of SCOTUS' Citizens United decision.    In a discussion with Bill Moyers, Sanders uses the example of what's happening in Richmond, CA to illustrate how this unlimited use of anonymous money in politics is ruining our democracy.  [bernie_sanders@sanders.enews.senate.gov]

Richmond is a small city on San Francisco Bay.   It happens to be the location of a Chevron petroleum refinery.    The oil company has spent nearly $3 million in local races for mayor and city council members, essentially to "buy" up a slate of oil-friendly candidates.

It's one thing to flood national, or even state, elections with millions -- where Democrats also have wealthy people who can match them.   It's quite another for a national corporation to throw that kind of money into a local race with no counter force to give the opposition even a slim chance.

I know Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her liberal colleagues understand this.   I hope Roberts, Kennedy, at least, are having second thoughts about what they have wrought.  Alito is beginning to seem as recalcitrantly obtuse as Scalia and Thomas.

Ralph