David Brooks on Nightly News Hour - PBS - said he didn't think the independent contributions

[JohnWxy]

of money in the current mid-term elections was anything to be concerned about or was different than the situation in the past (before the Roberts 'buy your election' ruling).

Actually, what he said was: "But the idea that this is somehow some new phenomenon, just not true."... well, it's of course not a "new" phenomenon in the sense that independent groups could fund campaign advertizements is not new. BUT it IS new in that NOW it can be done 1) WITHOUT LIMIT and most importantly: 2) With complete anonymity - these two new rules of the game makes the situation a new 'phenomenon' in terms of the impact of outside (non-party) groups spending on our elections .

PBS Newshour conversation with Shields and Brooks: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec10/shieldsbrooks_10-15.html


And, the scale of money involved has changed dramatically ..

oustide spending Conservative and Liberal groups - Opensecrets.org

OpenSecrets.org shows that outside group spending by conservative groups, for these mid-term elections, is more than 4 times greater than in 2008! The contributions for mid-term elections are 4 times greater than contributions for a presidential election!


The flow of 'Roberts Money' from secret donors begins as an avalanche.

[OHdem10]

1. The question is Who . A lot of this money is coming in from

Corporate Donors. Who are they and how much.

It is important and Democrats have a right to know
because they (Donors) targeting Democrats and supporting
Republicans.

Earlier I had read where Boxer is being targeted. Feingold
and Grayson. All Liberals, of course.

I am very interested to know if these Big Money Guys are
going to target Blue Dogs and Centrists????
Our own party is supporting many Blue Dogs over very loyal
members who stood in the breach. Tell me if you can,
are the Corporate Givers targeting GA, Miss. Ala for starters.
Or or they supporting them???? Thkis is important.