This week is the 13th🎂anniversary🎂of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, when a bare majority of 5 justices claimed the Constitution requires us to allow unlimited spending on elections. 1/10
The Court: Since independent spending can’t possibly lead to corruption and all sources of money will be disclosed, everything will be fine.
Narrator: Everything was not fine.
Narrator: Everything was not fine.
The decision gave us super PACs, which allow megadonors—some of whose identities are secret—to pump tens of millions of dollars, or more, into supporting their favored candidates. And it gave us dark money groups, with their own megadonors—all of whose identities are secret. 3/10
The system lets multimillion dollar donors influence who runs for office, who wins, & who will take their calls once in power. For majority rule, that’s too much power in the hands of special interests & the pet ideological projects of a few billionaires. 4/10 
The price tag for elections continues to rise. 💸 💸 💸 The 2022 state and federal elections cost an estimated $16.7 billion, a new record for a midterms cycle. 5/10 opensecrets.org/news/2022/11/t…
The top 100 individuals & their spouses started outspending all the millions of small donors after Citizens United, and their share continues to increase. In last year’s elections, just 21 donor families outspent at least 3.7 million small donors. 6/10
brennancenter.org/our-work/analy…
brennancenter.org/our-work/analy…
Election denial was prominent in races for offices that will run the 2024 battleground elections. Megadonors used super PACs to boost several election deniers as huge amounts flowed into once-sleepy state secretary of state contests and others. 7/10 brennancenter.org/our-work/resea…
We need reforms. Citizens United said we aren’t allowed to put a limit on big money in elections. But there are key areas where powerful changes are possible. 💪 8/10 brennancenter.org/our-work/polic…
Transparency can eliminate dark money. Where $ comes from tells voters how much to trust messages (ad from a community group vs profit-making industry?) & hold politicians accountable (pol's support from a special interest shows what they stand for). 9/10 brennancenter.org/our-work/resea…
Public financing that matches & multiplies small donations will empower everyday people & strengthen connections between officials & constituents. It engenders campaigns w grassroots support instead of big $ from wealthy & special interests. 10/10 brennancenter.org/our-work/resea…
Transparency can eliminate dark money. Where $ comes from tells voters how to trust messages (ad from community group vs profit-making industry?) & hold politicians accountable (support from special interest tells you what pol stands for). 9/10 brennancenter.org/our-work/resea…
Public financing that matches & multiplies small donations will empower everyday people & strengthen connections between officials & constituents. It engenders campaigns w grassroots support instead of big $ from wealthy & special interests. 10/10 brennancenter.org/our-work/resea…
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