How 'Ghost Corporations' Are Funding the 2016 Election

[eridani]

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/35849-how-ghost-corporations-are-funding-the-2016-election

Two days before Christmas, a trust called DE First Holdings was quietly formed in Delaware, where corporations are required to reveal little about their workings. A day later, the entity dropped $1 million into a super PAC with ties to Jersey City, N.J., Mayor Steven Fulop, a Democrat considering a gubernatorial bid.

The trust, whose owner remains unknown, is part of a growing cadre of mystery outfits financing big-money super PACs. Many were formed just days or weeks before making six- or ­seven-figure contributions — an arrangement that election law experts say violates a long-standing federal ban on straw donors.

But the individuals behind the “ghost corporations” appear to face little risk of reprisal from a deeply polarized Federal Election Commission, which recently deadlocked on whether to even investigate such cases.

Advocates for stronger campaign-finance enforcement fear there will be even more pop-up limited liability corporations (LLCs) funneling money into independent groups, making it difficult to discern the identities of wealthy players seeking to influence this year’s presidential and congressional contests.

The 2016 campaign has already seen the highest rate of corporate donations since the Supreme Court unleashed such spending with its 2010 Citizens United v. FEC decision.

One out of every eight dollars collected by super PACs this election cycle have come from corporate coffers, including millions flowing from opaque and hard-to-trace entities, according to a Washington Post analysis of federal campaign finance filings.

[orpupilofnature57]

1. NOT Bernie !!!!! And The Donald is their poster boy for Misanthropes.

[klook]

2. End Citizens United.

http://endcitizensunited.org

[yuiyoshida]

6. Agree!

K&R Tweeted

[highoverheadspace]

3. Its no longer a democracy.

Its a banana republic. And we have the nerve to criticize other countries when ours is bought and sold by the highest bidder. A ot of this money probably comes from overseas these days. As Lou Reed said "Put a fork in it and turn it over, your done".

[MrMickeysMom]

5. It is an oligarchy-But does HRC care?

Hell no, she couldn't care less.

The people who want a reform of campaign finance care. That's why we'll elect Bernie Sanders.

[ThePhilosopher04]

8. Whats more sad is Hillary supporters

don't care either.

[orpupilofnature57]

10. Old Yuppies waiting for their parent's to die.

[reformist2]

4. I think Bernie may very well be our last hope for real reform on this. Hillary ain't going to do it.

[Trust Buster]

7. This is a general discussion thread and not a general discussion-Primary thread.

[MrMickeysMom]

9. Time to sit in the penalty box...

...and feel shame.

[KamaAina]

11. Corruption? In Jersey City? I'm shocked. Shocked!

I actually went and voted -- several times -- for a corrupt Democratic machine in the hopes of unseating ghastly repuke Bret Schundler.

Thing is, about two-thirds of Jersey City residents are immigrants, not all of whom have become naturalized citizens. So local politics is dominated by the black churches and the yuppies who have settled in the section of town next to Hoboken and directly across from lower Manhattan.