The public must know which affluent groups are using their financial resources to buy elections and influence policy.
However, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC), also known as Citizens United, has made it easier than ever for special interests, such as corporations and billionaires, to funnel enormous sums of money into our elections.
They often achieve this in secret, employing strategies that conceal the identities of those funding efforts to sway American voters’ opinions or engaging in illicit coordination with campaigns without being held accountable.
The Supreme Court’s decision on corporate independent expenditures (the maximum amount of money a corporation can spend directly on a political campaign) on January 21, 2010, effectively removed all restrictions on such spending, allowing companies and other outside groups to engage in limitless campaign spending.
Since the Court presumed that corporations’ campaign expenditure would be completely open and “independent” from the campaigns’ spending choices, it found that limitless corporate campaign spending would not cause corruption.
Neither of these predictions has come true, though, because of Citizens United, which has enabled corporations to spend billions of dollars influencing elections and thereby silencing regular people.
Campaign Legal Center (CLC) will continue its efforts from the 2024 election cycle to root out wrongdoers, demand punishment for violations of the law, and collaborate with legislators to push for legislative reforms that make our elections more open and accountable.
More Money Going Into Politics from Outside Interests
Super PACs have gained popularity as a means of financing federal elections since they can receive and spend an unlimited amount of money, including contributions from businesses and unions.
Elon Musk, for example, donated a quarter of a billion dollars to superPACs that ran ads, knocked on doors, and banked phones for President Trump’s 2024 campaign. These groups have become a means for rich special interests to influence elections and gain political influence and access.
Super PACs must disclose their fundraising and expenditures to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in accordance with their legal obligations. However, this openness is often compromised due to the fact that superPACs frequently disclose donations from anonymous “dark money” organizations.
The 2024 election was impacted by millions of dollars spent by dark money groups. One such example is the $205 million gift that an allied dark money group made to the Democratic candidate-supporting superPAC Future Forward PAC. The real source(s) of these millions of dollars spent attempting to influence voters’ votes in the 2024 election will likely remain secret, and voters had no notion who spent it.
Using Straw Donors and Illegal Coordination
The significance of laws mandating the disclosure of all contributions was emphasized by the Court in its decision in Citizens United. The court reasoned that voters would be better able to “give proper weight to different speakers and messages” if they could quickly learn who was funding corporate-sponsored political advertising.
But there are a lot of ways that rich special interests can disguise their identities from the public if they wish to keep their political expenditures under wraps. One prevalent strategy, known as a “straw donor scheme,” involves hiding the actual donors’ identities behind a shell corporation or some other intermediary.
“Save Our Home Planet Action, Inc.” (SOHPA), an apparent straw donor discovered by CLC in 2024, was formed days before it was utilized to make more than $1.4 million in political contributions. The purpose of these contributions was likely to hide the identity of the donors, preventing voters from having all the information they needed to make an informed decision.
Coordination between outside groups and a candidate’s campaign is another common form of criminal activity. A recent judgment was obtained by CLC Action on behalf of Common Cause Georgia against the Federal Elections Commission (FEC). The judgment was based on the FEC’s failure to uphold the law and punish the Georgia Republican Party for their unlawfully covert actions in tandem with the nonprofit organization “True the Vote,” which aimed to impact the 2021 Georgia Senate runoff elections.
Voters in Georgia reaped the benefits of our efforts when the FEC and the state GOP reached a settlement.
The FEC’s Absence of Responsibility
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has not only failed to punish cooperative politicians and super PACs but has actually allowed additional avenues for their coordination, allowing outside parties to rig our elections.
There has been a group of four FEC commissioners who have been undermining important legislative restrictions on election spending and have refused to look into obvious infractions of the law, such as the obvious coordination between federal candidates and super PACs this year.
Extensive coordination between outside groups and wealthy special interests has been made possible by the FEC, according to a report released by the Campaign Legal Center.
Keeping Elections Free and Fair for the Future
There will be greater chances for corruption as the expense of our elections continues to rise. CLC stands ready to support openness and responsibility by:
- Bringing to light dishonest performers. Secrecy is a virtue for those who seek to subtly sway our elections. The goal of CLC is to bring attention to these incidents so that the flaws in our current system can be exposed.
- Making the Federal Election Commission answer for its actions. The failure of the FEC to adequately punish wrongdoers has allowed special interests to violate the law for an excessive amount of time.
- Working with lawmakers to achieve legislative solutions. To prevent the weakening of our campaign finance regulations, we need legislation like the DISCLOSE Act, which would make all large political donors reveal their money, and the Stop Illegal Campaign Coordination Act, which would prohibit super PACs and campaigns from collaborating.
