Senate GOP marches in lockstep to keep campaign funding sources secret
Today, every single Republican senator marched in lockstep with the GOP leadership to keep the funding sources of independent campaign ads secret from the public. In a party-line vote, the minority Republican caucus once again employed the filibuster to stop a floor vote on the DISCLOSE Act (S. 3295) – effectively casting a cloak over money in politics through the 2012 elections.
Precisely when disclosure is most important – at the time in which the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed unlimited corporate money to flood our elections – we no longer have a meaningful disclosure law in place. Corporate money is flowing into our elections at record levels, but a Public Citizen study shows that very little of this money is being disclosed to the public.
The Republican filibuster is a travesty for our nation. Republicans firmly believe that the banks and the insurance industry are going to bankroll a GOP majority into Congress this year and perhaps take the White House in 2012 – so long as they don’t have to tell voters who is paying for their election and what those special interests want in return.
Senate Republicans today succeeded in concealing most of this new corporate money flowing into politics. The question now becomes: Will their stealth funders get what they paid for?
Craig Holman is the government affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen.