Big Corporations Secretly Spend $8 Million Against Conway

Stephanie Steitzer at the Courier:

Groups that support Paul have outspent those that back Conway by a margin of more than 2-1 — and much of the money comes from donors whose identities do not have to be disclosed, records compiled by the nonprofit Sunlight Foundation show.

“Voters are being deluged with advertisements and spending from groups, (and) they don’t know … who is backing these groups,” said Paul Blumenthal, senior writer with the Washington, D.C., foundation, which analyzes Federal Election Commission records. “… This is a lack of transparency and lack of accountability for those who are spending money in our political system.”

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling in January opened the door to unlimited spending on elections by corporations, unions and other groups. The decision did not affect direct corporate or union contributions to candidates; those are still banned. Nor did it cover spending by political action committees run by special interests, which must disclose their donors.

As Greg Sargent explained recently, the ads purchased with money from corporations too cowardly to show themselves are overwhelmingly anti-Democratic and overwhelmingly false.

In other words, corporate criminals are secretly spending millions to spread lies about Democratic candidates.

Those cowardly corporate criminals and their repug front groups think you're stupid. They're counting on you either believing their lies and voting for corporate minions like Rand Paul, or calling a pox on both parties and refusing to vote.

Either way, the corporations and Wall Street win, and Main Street, the middle class and American Democracy lose.

The Courier won't give you a link to the source of its story, the invaluable Sunlight Foundation, but I will: Dark Money Donors.

Have you made calls for your Democratic Congressional candidate today?