11:36 am What are they hiding?
You would think that lawmakers of both parties would rush to support a proposed law requiring prompt public disclosure of political campaign contributions by super PACs, labor unions, corporations, environmental lobbies, the National Rifle Association and other big donors. But the 114 co-sponsors of a bill in the House of Representatives for the “Disclose 2012 Act” are all Democrats.
The law, proposed by Rep. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, would take a powerful first step in controlling the huge flow of campaign money now permitted. The 2010 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission threw out the limits on political spending by corporations and labor unions and opened the way for the huge super PACs that dominate this year’s campaign spending.
The bill would require corporations, unions, super PACs and outside groups to report campaign spending of $10,000 or more within 24 hours. The leaders would have to stand publicly behind their campaign-related ads, including the ferocious “attack ads.” The bill would also require lobbyists to report their political expenditures.
In the 2008 presidential election, about half of $135 million spent by outside groups went unreported, according to the Hill’s Congress Blog, an online publication. It said that in the 2012 campaign about 40 percent of television advertising — $24 million worth — has been funded by nonprofit groups that never reveal their contributors.
American voters need to know, fully and promptly, who is behind massive political spending by both parties that the Supreme Court has permitted. The proposed Disclose 2012 Act would be a firm step in that direction.
—Bangor (Maine) Daily News
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