On October 14 last year, American Action Network, an organization staffed by executives from elite finance firms, spent $2.3 million to influence four congressional elections. No one knows where that money came from, ultimately, because the spending took place in the form of independent expenditures.
American Action Network was required to fulfill only one legal requirement in connection to the 2.3 million dollars in independent expenditures. It was required to inform the American people, through a disclosure to the FEC, that the spending had taken place, within 24 hours.
The American Action Network took a lot longer than 24 hours to register its independent expenditures with the FEC. It took over 300 days. The American Action Network only reported the independent expenditures two days ago, over nine months after the 2010 congressional election was over.
The disclosure requirement on independent expenditures is one of the last scraps of campaign finance law left after the Supreme Court Citizens United decision. The disclosure is supposed to enable American voters to make informed judgments about the financial connections of the congressional candidates on the ballot. By delaying until late this year to disclose its financial involvement in the 2010 congressional elections, the American Action Network prevented the voter in four congressional districts from making informed choices.
Who benefited from this concealment of the independent expenditures by the American Action Network? Bob Dold of the Illinois 10th congressional district, Patrick Meehan of Pennsylvania’s 7th congressional district, and Rick Crawford of the 1st congressional district of Arkansas were elected to the U.S. House of Representatives with the help of the hidden massive campaign spending by the American Action Network.
What do you think the chances are that any of these politicians will speak out against the violation of campaign finance law by the American Action Network on their behalf?
The same probability that Obama will prosecute the Bush administration for an illegally started war, or anyone in the banking sector for fraud, . . . (insert your own favorite example here).
The country no longer operates by the rule of law – if you’re a large corporation (with “political capital” – meaning you’ve bought senators and representatives), connected to a corporation or corporate law (like this example and the Supreme Court), or a in the ownership class – they play by “different” rules or the rules don’t apply to them. The rules are only meant to keep the little people in check or to make their lives miserable.
There’s no point in asking what we can do about it – because if there were any avenue open to us we’d have taken it by now. No, the Bush administration made it official that we don’t count and the Obama administration is the first (or next) of the new corporate puppeteers.