Studies Show Big Donors Dominated Competitive 2014 Congressional Races
Wednesday, January 14, 2015 - 4:00pm
Studies Show Big Donors Dominated Competitive 2014 Congressional Races
BOSTON - With the 5th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision coming up on January 21st 2015, public interest organizations working to eliminate big money in politics released reports detailing the effects this verdict has had on our government and elections. Those groups, which include Common Cause, MassPIRG, Demos, MassVote, the League of Women Voters, Represent Us, and more, announced their findings on the steps of Ashburton Place, the building where candidates file papers to run for office.
Common Cause authored a report titled “Whose Government, Whose Voice?” showing howunfettered political spending has blocked progress on solutions to key issues that large, bipartisan majorities of Americans support. These issues include stagnant wages, gun control, climate change, student debt, and net neutrality.
Pam Wilmot, Executive Director of Common Cause Massachusetts, said “In politics, as in life, he who pays the piper calls the tune. As these studies show, wealthy donors and special interests are drowning out the voices of average Americans, resulting in inadequate solutions to the critical problems facing our nation. Until we reduce big money in politics, all the other issues we care about are in trouble.”
Wilmot and other speakers pointed to the need for a federal constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United decision, which opened the floodgates to even more big money in politics, full disclosure of donors to political expenditures, and a system of public funding to encourage small donations and discourage bank-rolling of political campaigns from wealthy special interests.
According to the Common Cause report, Walmart alone and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent $14.8 million and $35 million respectively in 2014 advocating against raising the minimum wage, even while 70% of Americans support a national increase. The NRA spent more than $31.4 million in the last election cycle to drive off gun control reforms, even as 90% of citizens have expressed support for background checks. Similar data revealed that big money from the energy sector, major banks, and telecom industry have respectively blocked action on reducing carbon emissions, establishing refinancing plans for student debt relief, and efforts to keep the internet open for everyone.
More:
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2015/01/14/studies-show-big-donors-dominated-competitive-2014-congressional-races
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But the ACLU on the other hand...
