Super PAC Fundraising- It Isn't Even Close

Neither the essential political dialogue we need to have nor Americans in general are well served by pretending that there are an equal number of billionaires and well-funded special interests supporting both sides, or that the final tallies will be close. Walker survived his recall vote, not because his ideas were better, and not because Wisconsin, the home of Progressive Party, suddenly had an anti-union epiphany. Walker won thanks to having a substantially higher war chest, much of it provided by the usual suspects. We have all heard conservatives argue that their ideas are carrying the day and did so in Wisconsin, suggesting that money is a side issue. I always find that ironic, considering the right’s vociferous defense of Citizens United and its central and corrupting principle that money is equal to speech much in the same way corporations are equal to people.

The country may be evenly divided politically and the dems will certainly raise a staggering amount of money, but the reality is that a few dozen billionaires now control more wealth than the bottom 95%. A few dozen of them, aided substantially by the Robert’s Court, have set their sights on unfettered control of every level of political power at both the state and national level.  

It is because of this unprecedented power that Americans ought to take a deeper look anytime one of these moneymen comes up in the news as Sheldon Adelson and his questionable Macau casino dealings did this week. In addition to Adelson (Casino, Conservative)  other names to watch for are the Koch Brothers, David and Charles (Energy, John Birch Conservative), Harold Simmons (Nuclear Waste Disposal, Conservative), Bob Perry (Construction, Conservative), Jeff Katzenburg  (Media, Dreamworks, Liberal- also under SEC investigation for business dealings in China),  and Jerry Perenchio (Media, Univision, Conservative). All of these people contributed in the multi millions. Of the next 15 donors on the list all gave more than $1 million and except for a Morgan Freeman and Bill Maher, all gave to conservative groups. The Koch Brothers and Adelson dwarf all other contributions even on this list.

http://www.ranker.com/list/largest-super-pac-donors/keaton?page=1

Annual spending on lobbying runs about $2.5 billion. But the illicit super PAC money that has been released as a result of Citizens United has infiltrated the entire political system in ways that may take years to unravel. With so much reporting on the greyhound race to see who raises the most, any contextual understanding has been at best poorly explained to the American people.

The SC Citizens United decision created a poorly regulated marketplace of covert campaign corruptions-- ah… contributions-- that while not yet at the size of the lobbyists ($2.5 billion in 2012) in raw dollars, more than rivals it in terms of the punch delivered to politicians and the electorate. This is because the money is spent in such a focused way and doled out by so few. Citizens United allowed two things to take place. Super PAC’s were set free to raised unlimited amounts from corporations, individuals, and unions. It gives those groups wide leeway in running ads so long as they operate independently from the candidates. Independence from the candidates is distinction without a difference. The primary Romney Super PAC, Restore Our Future, is operated by three of his former fundraisers and Romney has spoken at ROF events.

While these super PACs are required to name their donors, the reporting requirements are not close to real-time, which hollows out their effectiveness in terms of informing the public. Recently the Senate tried to move forward legislation that would have required notification within 24 hours. Republicans voted it down. The second, more heinous and less talked about provision of law resulting from Citizens United is that nonprofit issues groups like Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS need not make public the source of their funds ever. While the media tends to refer to all of the groups as “super PACs” the critical difference is that the “non-profits” don’t need to report the source of their donations. This creates an opaque veil, a grimy curtain of secrecy for these groups. In the years to come this will become a breeding ground for corruption and/ or international involvement in American elections. Congress has the right even under Citizens United to tighten these restrictions. To date no meaningful attempt has gathered support in either house.  While many decried the lifting of restrictions on the size of donations, the dual corruption of late and/ or non-existent reporting as to the source of the money exacerbates an already dangerous attack on the voices of everyday citizens.  

Conservative groups powered by a few zealots have a stupefying amount of money and there is no comparable or countervailing force. The Washington Post reported just a few days ago that in 2011 half of the money raised by Super PACs came from 17 people. 17 friggin’ people out of a country of 300 million? That is not democracy; it is something more akin to a capitalist politburo. As I said in the Adelson piece yesterday, between Adelson and the Koch Brothers, 10% of all moment raised and spent in this cycle could come from 3 people. THAT is not even the Capitalist Politburo; That is the Central Committee of the Politburo.

While I am more than willing to cast a stony eye of disgust on both the Democratic and Republican party money machinery, I am not stupid enough or naïve enough to believe that corruption is an equal opportunity employer. I have said that liberals who hold out hope that their billionaire is better than the other guys are grasping a slim reed. But by the same measure moderates and independents who cast a pox on both houses, never to be bothered to actually ascertain the facts are missing a fundamental truth. The way it’s stacking up it ain’t even close.

This is one of the reasons despite repeated efforts to compromise on taxes and spending, something moderates in both parties are willing to do, a small core of Tea Party Republicans has blocked any compromise. While there is certainly an ideological hurdle to cross with the TP, America ought to know that money is the foundation on which that ideology rests. The Tea Party acolytes raised much of their early seed money from Americans for Prosperity (AFP). Americans for Prosperity receives nearly all of its money from The Koch Brothers.  Michelle Bachman has raised more loot than the rest of the Republican candidates for the House in Minnesota combined.  Could it be that campaign cash is at the root of her anti-Muslim slur campaign? Could it also be that much of the vitriolic rightwing rhetoric we hear from the right is also just a product of the need for campaign cash, a plea to the master(s) by Tea Party members to stay in office. I do not doubt their righteous anger, but money-- in politics above all-- is money. 

To the billionaire boys who set out to subvert the American political process within the letter of Citizens United law environmental and worker safety rules are obstacles to ever greater wealth. Republican job plans passed in the House present a full frontal assault on the EPA.

Conservative elements are bent on protecting and promoting the Republican Party which attacks any effort at regulatory reform that would rein them in politically or in their businesses, all the while protecting a wholly uneven tax system which benefits them obscenely at the expense of 300 million Americans.

Open Secrets. Org reports the money raised to date for the top ten Super PACs is as follows. These totals do not take into account the $20 Million Adeslon and his wife just pledged, nor do they account for the fact that Adelson and The Koch Brothers have pledged to spend up to $100 million each.

Restore our Future, Conservative, Romney $62 Million

American Crossroads, Karl Rove’s Super Pac, $35 million

Winning Our Future, Shelly Adelson’s Gingrich Super Pac, $24 million

Priorities USA, Obama’s Super Pac, $15 million

Majority Pac, Liberal, $10 million

American Bridge 21st Century, Liberal, $9.0 Million

Club for Growth, Conservative, $9.0 million

Red White & Blue, Santorum, $9.0 Million

AFL-CIO, $7 Million

Congressional Leadership Conservative, $7.0 Million