Opportunistic politicians can bathe in excessive amounts of corporate money in this election. That's, for the most part, thanks to the Citizens United v. FEC decision that has many leaders weary about what campaign financing they can and cannot get away w by elycefeliz
Like a BP oil gusher, foreign money is allegedly flowing into the midterm elections. Heavyweight interests with the muscle to influence legislation to suit their agenda, like the Chamber of Commerce, are at the center of this foreign money gusher putting Republicans over the top in many of the elections where Democratic incumbents are now endangered. Another corporate money gusher, unsurprisingly, is coming as a result of Karl Rove's and the Koch Brothers' attempts to influence the outcome of the election.
Think Progress recently revealed some "basic facts" the Chamber is having trouble refuting: it receives foreign sources of funding, the foreign funds go directly into the Chamber's general 501(c)(6) entity, at least $300,000 has been channeled from foreign companies in India and Bahrain to the account, the foreign sources include foreign state-owned companies, including the State Bank of India and the Bahrain Petroleum Company, the Chamber's 501(c)(6) entity has been used to launch an unprecedented $75 million partisan attack ad campaign against Democrats.
Rove and another George W.
Bush adviser, Ed Gillespie, are behind American Crossroads and Crossroads
Grassroots Policy Strategies, which "raised about $14.5 million in the 30-day
period that ended [September 19th]." As Associated Press writer Jim
Kuhnhenn wrote, "Under rules liberalized by both the Supreme Court and a
federal appellate court, American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS can raise
unlimited amounts of money from individuals and corporations." It is
"registered with the Federal Election Commission and as such must reveal its
donors, but Crossroads GPS is registered only as a nonprofit with the IRS and
doesn't have to disclose its sources of money."
The Koch Brothers influence on the 2010 Election likely began the day after President Obama was inaugurated. Jane Mayer noted in her profile of the Koch Brothers that ran in The New Yorker the Kochs of have been giving money to "'educate', fund, and organize Tea Party protesters and turn a "private agenda into a mass movement." Their investment has been all about getting "actual people, like voters" to get out there and "provide real ideological power" so the Kochs could "shape and control and channel the populist uprising" against government into the creation of policies to suit their agenda.
When Mayer's report was published, Koch Industries had led "all other energy companies in political contributions." Also, as noted by Mayer, David Koch was at that point "the biggest individual contributor to the Republican Governors Association, with a million-dollar donation." Mayer also noted that tracking all of the donations by the Kochs "may be untraceable" because "federal tax law permits anonymous personal donations to politically active nonprofit groups."
Kevin Zeese of the Prosperity Agenda explained in his article, "Can Anyone Stop Rove's Crime Against Democracy While it is in Progress?"
"The wealthy using front groups for secret donations is not new. It is a strategy perfected by a variety groups that [is] on steroids in the post-Citizens United electoral world. The Chamber of Commerce is one of the leaders in this approach where they have focused a great deal in past years on affecting the outcome of state supreme court races. We've been highlighting this at StopTheChamber.com. In one case, the courts, after five years of litigation, required disclosure of campaign donors for a Chamber front group. In Citizens for a Strong Ohio the Ohio Elections Commission ruled that a Chamber of Commerce front group that attacked an Ohio Supreme Court Justice was required to disclose its donors under Ohio law. Three courts upheld that decision, and all the corporate donors were named. The Chamber is a major player in this year's election activity as well"
In the midst of providing support to Democratic candidates struggling in this election, President Obama has recently chosen to bring attention to the flow of foreign money coming from the Chamber. He says of the Chamber, "one of the largest groups paying for these [attack] ads regularly takes in money from foreign corporations" and "groups that receive foreign money are spending huge sums to influence American elections, and they won't tell you where the money for their ads come from."
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