Democracy Reforms Are Essential to Curb Corruption and Big-Money Influence
A recent New York Times analysis found that “Billionaires made 19 percent of all reported federal campaign contributions in 2024,” and that “Wealthy donors are reaping the rewards” of our political system.
These billionaires and their immediate family members, the study found, gave more than $3 billion in 2024, an astonishing amount. Yet that number does not even capture all of the Super Rich influence-seeking money sloshing around Washington. That’s because the contributions that billionaires give to dark money groups are not disclosed.
The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in 2010 opened the door to this tsunami of political money. The percentage of billionaires spending money on elections went from 0.3 percent in 2008 to 19 percent in 2024.
Campaign finance reforms are essential to address the flood of big money that is fueling corruption in the nation’s capital. The For the People Act was meant to address this fundamental problem, along with other democracy issues, and it passed the House in 2021. Revised legislation came within 2 votes of passing the Senate in 2022.
The Act will return for congressional action in the future when the opportunity exists to move it forward.
Anti-corruption political money reforms
Washington currently has the most corrupt political money system in modern times.
Our political system is dominated by influence-seeking billionaires and millionaires contributing unlimited contributions to Super PACs and undisclosed, unlimited contributions to dark money groups.
To address these fundamental problems, two political money reforms are essential: creating a new small donor, public matching option for federal candidates to run their campaigns with clean funds and requiring disclosure of the large contributions flowing to dark money groups.
Small Donor Financing System
In 1974, Congress created the presidential public financing system in response to the Watergate scandals. The system worked very well, with almost all major party candidates using the system for six presidential elections. The system ultimately became outmoded because Congress refused to modernize the system.
Democracy 21 has supported a similar clean resources financing system for Congress since our creation in 1997. In 2021, a small donor, public matching system passed the House. The system provided a voluntary, alternative way for House candidates to finance their campaigns with clean money.
Eligible House candidates would receive a 6-to-1 public match for individual contributions up to $200 per election. These candidates could raise up to $1,000 per election but no matching funds would be provided if a donor gave more than $200 over the course of the election.
Importantly, the costs of the matching funds are not financed by individual taxpayer funds. Instead, they are financed by a surcharge applied to certain fines, penalties, and settlements paid to the government by corporate lawbreakers and wealthy tax violators. There is a flat prohibition on the use of taxpayer funds to finance the system.
The DISCLOSE Act
According to the Brennan Center, dark money groups gave $1.3 billion in 2024 to influence federal campaigns. The donors and amounts of these contributions were not disclosed.
The DISCLOSE Act closes this enormous loophole by requiring dark-money groups to disclose their contributors and the amounts they gave. The Act further provides that these dark money groups cannot evade disclosing their donors by passing their money through third-party groups, which is often done to hide the identity of donors.
In 2010, the DISCLOSE Act passed the House and came within one vote of passing the Senate. Since 2012, the battle to pass this legislation has been skillfully and forcefully led by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. Congressional Republicans, however, have blocked its passage.
This legislation is essential. The source of the political money is hidden from voters and the press but not from the candidates and officeholders receiving the political benefits. That one-sided secrecy gives special advantages to donors and officeholders, while the public is left in the dark about who may be buying and selling influence.
Conclusion
This buying and selling of government influence and results is not the way our democracy is supposed to work.
Until we enact the anti-corruption, campaign finance reforms that are essential to protect the integrity of our political system and democracy, big money influence in Washington will continue to grow and get much worse. Billionaires using huge contributions to buy influence and results will become even more powerful in our government which is supposed to represent all of us.
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Fred’s Weekly Note appears on Thursdays in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s newsletter, and other recent editions, here. And subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.
