(HOST) While much attention during the current mid-term election campaign has been focused on the Tea Party, commentator and veteran ABC News correspondent Barrie Dunsmore tells us this morning that what’s dramatically different this time is – all the secret money.
(DUNSMORE) When the five conservative members of the United States Supreme Court decided last January that corporations had the same freedom of speech rights as individual citizens – they did not just reverse decades of legal precedent and settled law. They unleashed a massive flood of unregulated and unidentified cash that threatens to swamp the democratic process.
According to the Washington Post, $80 million has been spent by so-called "independent" groups so far this year. The money is flowing into the campaign by way of business associations, or newly created non-profits, calling themselves patriotic names such as "Americans for Job Security" or "American Future Fund." There’s also something called "American Crossroads," which we know is being advised by Karl Rove, among others. It plans to spend $50 million. And then there’s the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has pledged $75 million.
Where does all this money come from? We don’t know – because the Federal Elections Commission ruled that the Supreme Court’s decision meant that unless the corporate money is used to support a specific candidate – by name – donors do not have to be disclosed.
A few weeks ago, there was an attempt by Democrats in the Senate to lift this secrecy shield, but it was blocked by all 40 Senate Republicans. This was hardly surprising, since Republicans are far and away the major beneficiaries of this new largesse – the evidence of which is most likely to be seen on election day.
Still, even when it’s known who is putting up the money, extremely wealthy individuals and corporations with obvious axes to grind are increasingly perverting the political process.
The best example of this is in California, where the state’s new law to combat global warming and support clean energy is under threat. Two Texas oil companies with refineries in California are putting up most of the money for a ballot proposition that would prevent implementation of the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. Among other things, the Act would require refineries to install new emissions control equipment. The billionaire oil barons David and Charles Koch, who have spent many millions on right-wing political causes, are also reported to be financing the repeal effort.
A bipartisan coalition of Californians that includes President Reagan’s Secretary of State George Shultz is vigorously opposing these out-of-state money men. Shultz told the New York Times’ Tom Friedman, "You have to conclude that the financiers are less concerned about California than they are about the fact that if we get something that is working here to clean up the air and launch a clean-tech industry, it will go national and maybe international. So the stakes are high."
As of now the outcome of this vote is uncertain. That means it’s quite possible that the current best hope for climate change legislation will be thwarted by the vast unregulated assets of oil companies and rich global warming deniers. That is not the way this democracy was supposed to work.