Barbara Boxer won by about nine points, but that's not for lack of trying of the right-wing interests to boot her out. Over at California Watch, Chase Davis takes a look at the IEs against Boxer:
The Supreme Court's landmark Citizens United ruling earlier this year helped major corporations and other interest groups spend more than $5 million on California's Senate race without disclosing their contributors, according to independent spending reports analyzed by the Center for Responsive Politics.
Ten months ago, when the high court handed down Citizens United, effectively allowing businesses and trade groups to contribute unlimited sums to federal elections, the punditocracy was eager to predict an unprecedented flood of secret interest-group cash that would soon flow into competitive elections nationwide.
Many of those predictions have come true. In the months since, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has emerged as exhibit A in the ruling's predicted consequences, contributing millions of dollars to primarily Republican candidates while taking advantage of new legal covers to keep the sources of its contributions secret. (CalWatch)
In all, there was about eleven million dollars of these direct campaign ads lobbed up against Boxer. You can be the judge on effectiveness, perhaps they did move the needle a little bit. But in the end, I guess it is just as well that this money was spent in California, rather than other races. The Chamber's five million bucks in secret money are the most egregious, and there should be disclosure rules, but the money isn't going to slow without some sort of constitutional amendment to bring our democracy back to, you know, democracy rather than plutocracy.
But in California we have essentially had the Citizens United Scheme for years now. While we have a more robust disclosure system than the federal government now has, we have allowed essentially unlimited independent expenditures in state races. This is of course the reason that you see many races where IEs outspend both major candidates. It is why we have been stuck with a legislature dominated by one interest group or another dating back to Hiram Johnson's era.
It hasn't worked particularly well in California, and Citizens United only added to the inordinate power of the wealthy. With the DISCLOSE act flailing in Congress, don't expect any major changes anytime soon. |
