Senate rejects bill to disclose corporate financing of political campaigns

Democrats in the Senate failed to pass the DISCLOSE Act today. The bill would have forced corporations, unions, and non-profits to disclose more information about their political donations.  The legislation was a response to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which overturned a century-long precedent to allow corporations to advocate and fundraise freely for political candidates. The Court said the right was protected under the First Amendment.  Now, with the bill’s failure, corporations will be able to anonymously spend in campaigns for the upcoming elections in November.  FSRN’s Matt Pearson reports:

TRANSCRIPT:

With corporations for the first time in a century allowed to spend unlimited money on political campaigns, supporters of the DISCLOSE Act say the upcoming campaign season could be unfairly influenced by companies with deep pockets.

In a press conference on Monday, President Obama warned that some organizations were already planning to influence the November elections:

“These shadow groups are already forming and building war chests of tens of millions of dollars to influence the upcoming elections.”

Republican operative Karl Rove and ex-RNC-Chair Ed Gillespie have been linked to one such group, a spin-off of the conservative organization American Crossroads.  That spin-off is exempt from disclosing donor information.  It raised $5.1 million in June, its first month of operation.  It plans to raise more than $50 million by the end of the summer, for use against Democratic candidates and the Obama administration in the fall elections.

Fair government groups say it is important for voters to know who is paying for influential TV and internet political ads.

Lisa Gilbert is democracy advocate for U.S. PIRG:

“When they see attack ads, there’s no guarantee that they’ll know how they were funded.  So one of the most important pieces of the DISCLOSE Act is giving voters the disclosure they need to accurately make campaign decisions.”

But the bill failed to pass Tuesday, as Democratic leadership failed to get a single Republican vote.

Republicans like John Kyl of Arizona said the bill favored Democratic interest groups such as labor unions:

“This is a partisan bill drafted behind closed doors by current and former Democrat campaign committee leaders.  It is obviously written to disadvantage Republicans and favor special interests supportive of Democrats.”

But even Democratic supporters opposed the bill.  The AFL-CIO came out against the DISCLOSE Act, saying it was too strict on labor unions.

On the Senate floor Tuesday, Democrat Ben Cardin said he was surprised that Republicans would block a non-partisan bill:

“All of us have said that we should be serious about giving the public an opportunity to know who’s trying to influence their vote.  The minority leader in the House of Representatives said, and I quote, "I think what we ought to do, we ought to have full disclosure.  Full disclosure of all money we raise and how it is spent."”

Other campaign finance legislation supported by fair government groups was in markup in House committee on Tuesday.

The Shareholder Protection Act would require a majority of a company’s shareholders to approve political donations before it could donate.  Now that the DISCLOSE Act has stalled, Lisa Gilbert says this bill could be an effective response to the Citizen’s United ruling:

“Shareholders own the company, so they have a right to weigh in before corporations spend their money on political causes that may be antithetical to what they believe.”

Shareholders may have a say over a company’s spending, but what about customers?  In Minnesota, some Democratic shoppers are alarmed by the news that the Target Corporation has become a major donor for the presumptive Republican candidate for Minnesota governor, Tom Emmer.  Target reportedly donated $150,000 to MN Forward, a conservative consulting group.  Now, some Minnesota Democrats are calling for a boycott of Target stores.

Matt Pearson, FSRN, Washington.