When the conservative Supreme Court majority delivered a bitterly contested 5-4 ruling in January that overturned long precedents and freed corporations and other large organizations to spend freely in candidate elections, Americans broadly — and justifiably — criticized the court for fully opening the floodgates of vested-interest spending in America’s political process. It seemed then that both political parties would at least support legislation to require corporate and vested-interest sponsors of advertising, including unions and myriad advocacy groups, to disclose their financing of political ads.
Such thinking, alas, has been thoroughly punctured by the opposition in the House and Senate, where Republicans apparently smell rich opportunity for turning even more corporate and special-interest bucks to their campaign benefit.
Two chief opponents of a disclosure requirement — the National Rifle Association and the United States Chamber of Commerce — vehemently oppose the proposed, largely Democratic House bill, which has gained just two Republican supporters. The bill would require disclosure of the five top sponsors of any political-candidate ad financed by corporate or advocacy groups.
That’s not an unreasonable or onerous requirement. Political parties and candidates already have to confirm their sponsorship of candidate ads. But just as expected, it is the deep-pocket organizations that Americans fear would corrupt democracy if given the right to spend freely on candidate elections that are now opposed to the disclosure requirement.
And just as predictably, their lackey lawmakers — in this case, the Republican leadership in the House and Senate — are carrying water for them, as usual. NRA opposition is so adamant that Democratic sponsors of what is called the DISCLOSE act agreed, in the search for bipartisan sponsors, to allow an exemption in the bill that would exclude groups that fit the NRA’s profile. The exclusion would exempt nonprofit groups from compliance with the law if they have existed for more than 10 years, have more than 1 million members, with some in every state, and receive no more than 15 percent of their financing from corporations or unions.