Money That Buys Elections...

by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth

Money talks. It buys air time, effective ads, the best marketing firms, politicians, and ultimately influence. The kind of influence you and I can only dream of.

Powerful special interests with bundles of money to spend on their interets do so with the hope and expectations of influencing elections. With the help of the SCOTUS and Citizens United funneling huge sums of special interest monies have become easier.

Unfortunately corporations and billionaires are not thinking about the public interest or you and I. They are thinking about their interests and their interests exclusively. There is really no problem with this per se as each of us are bound by a need to consider, think about, and then act in our own rational self interests. But unlike those spending mega millions to influence elections we have almost no power over politicians or election outcomes, other than our vote and perhaps a few measly dollars we might send to a candidate we like.

Elections should not be influenced by voter fraud, voter suppression, or special interest money. Period.

It is time for concerned Americans across this great land of ours to make our voices heard. True campaign financing reform must become a priority. Until all special interest monies are wrung out of the system, and safeguards are put in place to prevent a recurrance, our democratic republic doesn't stand a chance of survival.

New York Times - Over the last year and a half, the conservative outside groups retooled and revamped, borrowing lessons about how to exploit voter data, opposition research and advertising learned from their less moneyed but more effective Democratic counterparts during 2012.

As federal courts opened new avenues of influence for the wealthy and lenient enforcement effectively neutered what few legal and regulatory restraints remain on big-money politics, they took advantage of every available tool. To shield donors from scrutiny, they moved most of their spending through nonprofit groups not subject to federal disclosure requirements. To be more nimble, they created subsidiaries devoted to specific races. They begged donors for money, overcame internal rivalries that lingered through Election Day, and ultimately deployed at least $300 million in a favorable political environment, helping drive the 2014 midterms to become the costliest in history.

All told, the political network overseen by the conservative billionaires Charles G. and David H. Koch appeared to be the largest overall source of outside television spending on behalf of Republicans. Seven Koch-backed groups spent roughly $77 million on television advertising in the midterm elections, officials said, including eleven Senate races. Koch groups appeared to be the biggest outside spenders on television in Arkansas, Iowa and Louisiana, airing a combined $25 million in ads. Republican candidates won Arkansas and Iowa, and the party’s candidate is favored to win a coming runoff in Louisiana.

American Crossroads and its affiliated nonprofit group spent $50 million on political advertising, and at least $20 million more on so-called issue ads, a spokesman said. The groups dominated outside spending in Alaska, where the Crossroads groups put about $7 million into television advertising, and Colorado, fielding close to $14 million, which helped crush Senator Mark Udall, the Democratic incumbent who was once favored to win.

All told, Republican outside groups spent about $205 million on television advertising, according to a Democrat tracking media purchases, while Democratic groups spent $132 million.

Read the rest BELOW THE FOLD.

Via: Memeorandum