A Corrupt & Obscene Campaign Finance System

Today’s campaign finance system floods Washington with unprecedented levels of influence-seeking and influence-buying campaign money.

It is an unfair and corrupt system.

It is also an obscene system where, for example, former President Donald Trump reportedly told top oil executives they should raise $1 billion for him. In return Trump said he would, if elected, immediately reverse dozens of President Biden’s environmental rules and policies.

In 2010, the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United brought unlimited contributions and secret, or “dark”, money back to federal elections – returning us to the corrupting days of Watergate.

In 2014, the Supreme Court’s McCutcheon decision killed the aggregate limit on the total amount that a single donor can give in an election cycle.

That same year, Republican and Democratic congressional leaders opened a massive campaign finance loophole, allowing general election presidential candidates today to solicit single contributions of as much as $929,600 per donor.

Our political system has become a playpen for billionaires and multimillionaires.

The top donors to federal campaigns for this election cycle, according to Open Secrets, include Timothy Mellon, $115 million; Kenneth Griffin, $75 million; Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, $72 million; Jeffrey and Janine Yass, $71 million; Paul Singer, $40 million; and Michael Bloomberg, $37 million.

As part of his $115 million, billionaire businessman Mellon gave a single $50-million donation to a Trump Super PAC in May – the day after Trump was convicted in a New York court of 34 felonies. That $50-million donation is thought to be among the largest single disclosed contributions ever.

Check out this Open Secrets list for the 28 donors who have given more than $10 million each during this election cycle.

Billionaires can also make their money felt in our elections in other ways.

Take Elon Musk, the world’s richest man.

Musk spent billions to buy Twitter, now called X, and is reportedly using it to spread campaign-related disinformation to millions.

According to The Washington Post, between his purchase of Twitter in 2022 and September 5, 2024, “Musk’s 52 posts or reposts about noncitizen voting — one of the main topics of false or misleading election claims he made in that time period — drew almost 700 million views.”

A recent analysis by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, the Post reported, found that 50 of Musk’s false or misleading election claims between January 1 and July 31, 2024 were debunked by independent fact-checkers and still generated almost 1.2 billion views.

“Musk’s control of X and his large following mean a single post from him can effectively take fringe election-denial falsehoods mainstream, experts say,” the Post reported.

We apparently have a political system of, by, and for the rich.

In 1974, Congress enacted a system of public financing to provide clean resources to run competitive races for President.

That voluntary system worked well for two decades and was used in six elections by nearly every major party presidential candidate. The system ultimately broke down when the dramatic increase in the costs of presidential campaigns, particularly advertising, outstripped the system’s funding and spending limits and Congress never modernized the system.

Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD), the campaign finance reform leader in Congress, has introduced legislation that, among other reforms, would repair the presidential public financing system and create a new system to increase the impact of small donor contributions in House races.

Reform leaders in Congress are also exploring ways to address growing AI and disinformation on social media platforms that’s being used by bad actors, including foreign governments, to disrupt our elections.

Sweeping democracy reform legislation will be a top priority for Congress if the Democrats achieve a “trifecta” – winning the presidency and both houses of Congress – in November.

Until the presidential public financing system is repaired, reforms are adopted to provide alternative ways to finance congressional campaigns, and secret “dark” money in elections is ended, billionaires and powerful special interests will continue to drown out the voices of average citizens in Washington.

The corruption of our democracy will only grow worse.