Small step in right direction

March 25, 2012

Small step in right direction

In January, I wrote in this space of the new level of negative campaigning since the Supreme Court's Citizen's United ruling.

I opened that column with a quote from President Obama. In the spirit of bipartisanship, I offer one this week from his Republican opponent of 2008, Sen. John McCain:

"The United States Supreme Court — in what I think is one of the worst decisions in history — struck down the restrictions in the so-called McCain-Feingold Law, and a lot of people don't agree with that, but I predicted when the United States Supreme Court, with their absolute ignorance of what happens in politics, struck down that law, that there would be a flood of money into campaigns, not transparent, unaccounted for, and this is exactly what is happening."

Since January, a handful of billionaires have pumped millions of dollars into Republican Super PACs, with almost all of that money being used thus far to sling mud at other Republicans in the ongoing primary election.

CBS News reports that from February 2011 to February 2012, three men — Sheldon Adelson, Harold Simmons and Bob Perry — have combined to contribute $38.3 million to political Super PACs. Perry is familiar to New Mexico voters for the $450,000 contribution he made in 2010 to the campaign of Gov. Susana Martinez.

While Simmons and Perry have spread their money around, Adelson has contributed all $16.5 million to Newt Gingrich — single-handedly keeping that campaign afloat. If Gingrich were to be elected president (I know ... humor me here) is there any doubt as to what kind of influence Adelson would have?

A bill introduced last week in the Senate would not fix all of the ills created by the Citizen's United ruling. But it would help.

The DISCLOSE (Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections) Act of 2012 would still allow millionaires and billionaires to pump unlimited amounts of money into the electoral process, but it would at least give voters more information about who is trying to buy which elections.

The bill would require any "covered organization" that spends $10,000 or more during an election cycle to file a report with the Federal Election Commission within 24 hours detailing the amount and nature of each expenditure over $1,000 and the names of all donors who gave $10,000 or more.

The bill also includes a so-called “stand-by-your-ad” disclaimer that would require the head of the organization paying for the ad to appear at the end with the standard "I approve this message," now required for ads produced by the campaigns. They would also be required to list their top funders in the ad.

As I discussed in January, without that requirement, the spending tends to get divided into good cop, bad cop ads. The official campaigns run the sunny, optimistic ads, with the candidates pronouncing their approval at the end. While the Super PACs sling the mud and do the dirty work.

Not that they're coordinating, of course.

New Mexico senators Tom Udall and Jeff Bingaman are both co-sponsors of the bill.

“Republicans and Democrats have both touted disclosure in the past and the ideas in this bill have earned broad support,” Udall said. “There’s a lot we need to fix with campaign finance, but at a minimum, the American people at least deserve to know where the deluge of money financing these new shadow campaign operations is coming from.”

Unfortunately, while those from both parties may have "touted disclosure," all 34 cosponsors of this bill are Democrats. Those who cover Congress predict it may pass in the Senate, but probably won't in the House.

Walter Rubel is managing editor of the Sun-News. He can be reached at wrubel@lcsun-news.com or follow @WalterRubel on Twitter.