Discussion for article #227592
Though it is certainly heartening to hear candidates advocating for clean elections through better laws and regulations, the solution to secret money’s corrosive influence has to be a free market one. Otherwise, conservatives will dismiss the effort as government oppression and an attempt by Democrats to gain an advantage.
What we need is a Sunlight Foundation with teeth.
We need an organization that will go after these groups and aggressively shame them in the markets where they advertise. It would monitor political ads and trace back the funding. Where found, it would post the information on its website. Where impossible to find, it would air counter ads showing clips of the dark ads and calling them out for being, in all probability, evil, out of state carpetbaggers telling the good citizens of the State of _______ what to do.
It could fund itself by selling a badge, like the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval, that groups could integrate into their ads. All the groups would have to do is submit complete funding information and pay a fee. Then, even if voters don’t go to the database to see who funded a particular ad, they know they have the opportunity.
If it caught on, groups would come under increasing pressure to release their information. To establish a critical mass, the organization could give away the first round of badges to groups that already disclose their donors.
It’s kind of like extortion for a good cause.
(Edited to add paragraph breaks, so as not to appear to be a crazy person.)
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What are the odds that the “money laundering” appellation is mostly metaphorical? It seems to me that with all the consulting fees and commissions and so forth the way would be open for someone with illegal proceeds to launder might also consider establishing some dark-money political committees and then arranging to spend the maximum on overhead and the minimum on actual ad buys. (TPM reported a cycle or two ago on questionable fund-raising companies that gin up candidates to raise money for and then take almost all of the contributions for overhead, so imagine the same thing, only with the contributor(s) a willing part of the scam.)
Yep, I thought that’s where the article was going but it didn’t get there.
The Kochs of our nation will exhaust every last avenue to do their dirty work and then invent some more.
The Supreme Court is the key and the solution. If we get rid of the joke that leads the court now and his jesters and at least put in place non-partisan judges that truly care about America, then we are half way to taking back our democracy.
Remember, conservatives installed Roberts and his crew to do exactly what they are doing, not to rule with a balanced scale.
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No surprise here, considering, the corrupt Wicked Witch of the West is governor.
Arizona has always been associated with “Dark” things in my mind. My most annoying relative settled in Arizona. Chaming man. Fit right in. Thought highly of Mussolini.
Like I said, “Arizona is as dark as Mordor.”
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Sorry. It didn’t work.
It rarely does.
Arizona is approaching “Louisiana” levels of corruption.
As much as I am willing to like this candidate and as much as I would vote for him if I had a chance, I am not completely convinced that it is proper for a place like TPM to run what amounts to campaign commercials for individual candidates. Perhaps I am oversensitive (could very well be), but it leaves an uneasy feeling with me.
Terry Goddard is a great guy, an above-average public servant, and has deep roots in Arizona. Unfortunately he’s not the greatest campaigner, he doesn’t ooze charisma like other politicians.
I hope he wins because Secretary of State is Arizona’s equivalent to Lt. Governor in most other states. Also, the current SoS is a Republican who has used the office’s power over elections to politicize them in line with the GOP’s attempts to skew elections towards Republicans; another GOPer in that office will likely do the same.
Edited to add: Arizona at one time produced a number of great leaders like Mo Udall, Bruce Babbitt, Carl Hayden, and even Barry Goldwater softened in his later years and became much more human. Terry fits that mold, I hope he can convince voters that he’s the guy for the job. He’s not super-exciting, just very good at doing what a public servant should.