Six days after the Supreme Court eviscerated restrictions on campaign spending by corporations and wealthy individuals in Citizens United v. FEC, Barack Obama delivered his 2010 State of the Union address. The decision, he said, “will open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections.” He fretted that U.S. elections might soon be “bankrolled” by “foreign entities.” Sitting in the chamber, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. seemed to mouth the words “not true,” creating a swirl of controversy about this supposedly personal conflict between the court and the president. Thirteen years later, says Saurav Ghosh, director of campaign finance reform at the Campaign Legal Center, “it looks like Obama’s concerns were very well-founded.” The floodgates were indeed opened.
Opinion Page: How an obscure megadonor’s giving highlights our dark-money fiasco
From the Washington Post, April 6, 2023
Consider the case of Hansjörg Wyss. The billionaire businessman has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to various causes, including indirect donations to efforts to elect Democratic candidates, the Associated Press reports. Since he isn’t an American citizen (he’s Swiss, although he has lived in the United States for decades), that’s supposed to be illegal. Representatives for Wyss told the AP that his donations comply with federal law, and spokespeople for the nonprofit groups through which he funneled this money said they “have established strict policies prohibiting their funds from being used for get-out-the-vote activities, voter registration, or supporting or opposing candidates or political parties.” Nevertheless, the fact that he can do it shows how porous our campaign finance regulation has become. You might even compare it to Swiss cheese. Before conservatives say “Aha, liberals maneuvering around the law!”, they should remember that this is the system Republicans built. That both parties take advantage of it to pour ungodly amounts of money into our elections doesn’t change the fact that it’s working just as the GOP wanted. All their assurances that it would be fine for democracy turned out to be false.
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darryll jones