Sen. Whitehouse Takes on Secret Spending in Political Campaigns
Friday, July 13, 2012
The U.S. Senate on Monday will vote on legislation that would require groups to disclosure their campaign funding sources and force corporations and lobbyists to open up about their political expenditures.
Sponsored by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, the DISCLOSE Act is a direct response to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision that allowed for unlimited expenditures by corporations or unions. The decision helped to give rise to what are known as Super PACs, which critics say are dominating elections across the country.
“The flood of secret money unleashed by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision threatens to drown out the voices of middle class families in our democracy,” said Whitehouse. “The DISCLOSE Act will uphold every citizen’s right to know where this secret money is coming from and whom it is going to, and will help protect the interests of middle class families from the special interests who already have too much power. It’s time for Congress to act.”GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST
Under Whitehouse’s bill, any organization that spends $10,000 or more during an election cycle would be required file a report within 24 hours, identifying any donors who gave $10,000 or more. It will require political groups posing as social welfare organizations to disclose their donors and will prevent corporations and other wealthy interests from using shell corporations to funnel secret money to super PACs.
Common Cause executive director John Marion said Whitehouse’s legislation is important because of the significant increase in secret money being contributed throughout the nation.
“There has been a marked increase in the amount of money being raised by groups who are not required to disclose information about their donors nationally,” Whitehouse said. “This bill is necessary to pull back the curtain on the ‘dark money’ and allow voters to judge the value of the message by considering who is paying for it. As money shifts from being given directly to candidates, who are accountable at the ballot box, to outside groups, who are accountable to no one, we need greater disclosure.”
Super PACs have yet to play a major role in a Rhode Island election, but that didn’t stop Governor Chafee from signing legislation this year that requires individuals and organizations that engage in “independent expenditures” and “electioneering communications” to disclose donors and expenditures to the state.
That bill, which was sponsored by Rep. Chris Blazejewski and Sen. Juan Pichardo, would require groups that spend more than $1,000 in Rhode Island to support a candidate or a political issue to report that expense to the Board of Elections. It also requires groups that engage in electioneering communications to report all donors who have contributed $1,000 or more in the previous year.
Nationally, the issue of campaign finance disclosure has become a major topic as President Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney continue to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in their respective campaigns. According to Open Secrets, “667 groups organized as Super PACs have reported total receipts of $244,275,203 and total independent expenditures of $139,426,589” during the 2012 election cycle.
On Thursday, Congressman David Cicilline signed a discharge position to bring the House version of the DISCLOSE Act to a vote.
“Corporate special interests hold more control over what does or doesn’t get done in Washington than ever before, in part, because they can now spend unlimited amounts of money on political campaigns,” he said. “I will continue to fight for full campaign finance disclosure so we end the influence of secretive, unlimited spending.”
Dan McGowan can be reached at [email protected].
