Outside Money Influences Elections from the President to the Local Sheriff
We’ve been talking a lot lately about the current financial state of play in electoral politics. Despite the mega-finances poured into the current election cycle, working families have more power than they think—power at the polls.
It’s not just the presidential race that’s being flooded with money. Every political race—from your local sheriff to state and local judges to your state governors and legislators —is receiving more donations from an ever greedier financial elite.
The National Institute on Money in State Politics reveals that 2012 races for state governor have already attracted more than $145 million . State senate races are just shy of $157 million right now and state house races are already more than $215 million . Even judgeships come at a cost—more than $19 million has been contributed to state appellate and high court judicial races. All told, more than $747 million has been raised in state and local races so far in the 2012 election cycle.
Almost $300 million is known to have come from business interests, while less than $50 million has come from labor unions.
And it’s still too early to tell how bad it’s going to get in state races. With widely varying levels of disclosure from state to state, you may not ever know how much money folks like David Koch are spending to influence your state and local government. While some of the outside money in state and local governments comes from entities that disclose donors (typically “ 527s ,”including those associated with political parties like the Democratic Governors Association [DGA and Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC]), much of the money flows through non-disclosing entities.
But even with many corporations contributing to both sides , Republican committees that disclose outspent disclosing Democratic committees 2-to-1 in 2010. It is too early to accurately measure spending in 2012, but those Republican committees have so far out fundraised the Democratic committees 2.5-to-1. The top three contributors in 2012 to the RGA are Koch Industries (yes, them ), Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Las Vegas Sands (run by THAT Sheldon Adelson ).
The states are also left with essentially no power to rein in independent corporate spending on elections. This summer, the Supreme Court doubled down on their Citizens United decision by overturning a Montana state law that prohibited corporations from making expenditures to elect or defeat political candidates at the state level.
State and local races often have a more immediate effect on our lives than federal elections. These are the folks who write our state and local laws, the judges who determine who goes to jail, the school board members who shape our children’s education.
When wealthy out-of-state interests dominate local elections, working people lose. Let’s not forget the outcome of the record-breaking $2.5 billion 2010 election cycle , which led to a series of assaults on the rights of working people, and especially women, immigrants and people of color. And last year, a Denver school board election ended up flooded with money from oilmen and bankers.
And now it looks like all the Chamber of Commerce money flowing into state elections is pushing the Republicans even further toward the right .
But people power can still trump financial power. Fight back against these billionaires who want to take away your rights at the polls and at work, and silence your voice. You can stand up to the money avalanche by volunteering with your local union, central labor council or Workers’ Voice for neighborhood canvasses, phone banks and other actions—and you can help make sure voting rights are protected for all by visiting the AFL-CIO's My Vote, My Right site here .
