If Americans were wary of the Supreme Court opening the floodgates of outside election spending with Citizens United two years ago, they like it even less now that they’ve seen what the decision has reaped. A new ABC News/Washington Post poll Tuesday shows 69 percent of Americans think super PACs should be illegal.Super PACs, highly visible in the volatile Republican primary, have taken to playing bad cop by flooding the airwaves with negative attack ads that benefit their chosen candidate but also allow the candidate to absolve himself of any blowback. Super PACs have spent an estimated $75 million to date on the election, almost entirely on the presidential race, according to Langer Research Associates, the firm that conducted the poll. That’s more than the candidates’ own campaigns.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=100607