When Mayors Against Illegal Guns Action Fund, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's vehicle for pushing for tighter gun control regulation, ran ads Sunday morning calling on President Barack Obama and his Republican opponent, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, to offer plans to reduce gun violence, they became the first dark money group to publicly disclose its donors.
Bloomberg's group, a social welfare organization set up under section 501(c)4 of the tax code, is the first to comply with a U.S. District Court ruling requiring such organizations, which normally keep their donors secret, to disclose them ...
Continue readingDISCLOSE Act Failed on Party Lines Yesterday, Another Vote Expected This Afternoon
UPDATE: On Tuesday afternoon, the Senate once again voted to not proceed on the DISCLOSE Act. The tally was 53... View Article
Continue readingThe black hole of political disclosure
Our Sunlight Foundation colleague, Lee Drutman, has written elsewhere about the amount of dark money -- political donations that come without donors attached -- flowing into this year's campaign. But what about the conduits? As the Senate debates the DISCLOSE Act this week, a measure that would take modest steps towards adding a little transparency back into the campaign finance system, it's worth taking a look at the entities that are taking advantage of the loopholes that allow them to avoid disclosing -- sometimes just donors, sometimes just about everything.
The groups run the gamut from long established organizations with a ...
Continue readingThese Senators Were For Disclosure Before They Were Against It
Later today, the Senate is expected to vote along party lines to deny cloture to the DISCLOSE Act. Republicans have... View Article
Continue readingWhat You Should Know About the DISCLOSE Act Part 4: Is the DISCLOSE Act Constitutional?
This evening, the Senate will vote on the DISCLOSE Act, a bill that would shine a light on the dark... View Article
Continue readingWhat You Should Know about the DISCLOSE Act Part 2: How does the DISCLOSE Act Shine a light on Super PACs and Dark Money?
As we wrote yesterday, the Senate will vote on the DISCLOSE Act on Monday. In a series of blog posts... View Article
Continue readingWhat You Should Know about the DISCLOSE Act Part 1: What is the DISCLOSE Act?
The Senate is expected to vote soon on the DISCLOSE Act, a bill that will shine a light on the... View Article
Continue reading$12 million in the dark
So far this year, groups that do not disclose their donors, and legally are not required to do so, have reported almost $12.4 million in political spending to the Federal Election Commission, much of it made possible by the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision.
Some $8.4 million of this dark money has paid for independent expenditures--advertisements, phone banks, get out the vote operations and other spending aimed at electing or defeating a specific candidate. Non-profits organized under section 501(c) of the tax code spent the bulk of the money; under federal law, they are not required ...
Continue readingSupreme Court Fails to Correct or Amend its Citizens United Decision
The Supreme Court had a chance to right a wrong. Unfortunately, by a five to four vote, it declined. Today the court announced its decision to overturn a Montana law prohibiting corporate contributions in elections. The decision comes as no surprise. The Montana law was in direct conflict with the Court’s decision Citizens United, which gave corporations the right to spend unlimited sums of money on political activities, as long as they don’t contribute to candidates directly. But the same activist court that enlarged the scope of the issues presented by Citizens United in order to fabricate a reason to overturn a century of law, today took the narrow approach. By summarily reversing the decision of the Supreme Court of Montana, the court ignored an opportunity to reconsider two important issues in Citizens United: First, that independent expenditures do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption, and second, that current disclosure laws would provide “citizens with the information needed” to “see whether elected officials are ‘in the pocket’ of so-called moneyed interests.”
Continue readingRebuttal to McConnell’s War of Misinformation on DISCLOSE Act
A war is being waged against the DISCLOSE Act. Its Commander in Chief is Senator Mitch McConnell, his secret weapon is misinformation and his goal is to protect unlimited dark money contributions to the political process.
It’s time for a counter-attack. 
Last week, McConnell outlined his plan of attack in a speech to the American Enterprise Institute. Wrapping himself in a narrow and self-serving interpretation of the First Amendment, McConnell casts liberals as the enemies of free speech and he and his foot soldiers (the Chamber of Commerce) as the true protectors of our constitutional rights. But take apart his arguments and it is easy to spot his true intentions—not to protect the free speech rights of all citizens, but to protect the ability of wealthy donors to anonymously influence our democratic process.
The Sunlight Foundation refutes the worst inaccuracies being lobbed against reasonable efforts to disclose the dark money that is infiltrating our elections. This Orwellian tactic is timed to defang public support for the DISCLOSE Act, which the Senate is likely to consider in July.
59063
