Money talks in the NY 19th Congressional District

Posted 8/21/12

With the primary behind us and the summer moving on, it won’t be long before the money being spent by the candidates makes itself felt in the form of political ads on television, radio, print, …

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Money talks in the NY 19th Congressional District

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With the primary behind us and the summer moving on, it won’t be long before the money being spent by the candidates makes itself felt in the form of political ads on television, radio, print, Internet and other sources.

It seems likely that Republican candidate John Faso will outspend Democratic candidate Zephyr Teachout because he will have a larger campaign war chest, and he will take full advantage of the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court. That decision allows political action committees know as superPACS to spend unlimited amounts of money in support of political candidates.

Teachout has said she will not have a superPAC, and she has raised most of her campaign cash through contributions from small donors. In fact, Teachout was the head of a superPAC called MAYDAY.US that was created to end superPACS and the influence of big money in politics.

A post on the website says, “We’re proud of everything Zephyr Teachout accomplished as CEO and board chair of MAYDAY.US. We need more reformers to join Representatives Walter Jones and John Sarbanes and other reform leaders in fighting for reform on the floor of the U.S. Congress. Now it’s on each of us to step up and win the national fight!”

It’s a fight that Faso would likely not be interested in. His opponent in the Republican primary, Andrew Heaney, said during a debate, “He has started multiple superPACs so, of course, he doesn’t want reform.”

Faso, who became a lobbyist after a turn as a minority leader of the New York State Assembly and a run for the office of governor, has benefitted from the Citizens United decision.

According to stories from multiple news outlets, hedge fund manager and Republican activist Paul Singer has donated $500,000 to a superPAC that supports Faso, and so has Robert Mercer, the CEO of another hedge fund.

It seems pretty clear to a great many people that unlimited spending by organizations and individuals in support of one politician or another results in unequal representation in Washington, and there is a growing movement to undo the impacts of the 2010 Supreme Court decision.

In 2016, a majority of the members of the New York State Legislature voted to support a constitutional amendment that would reverse the impact of Citizens United and, two years ago, 55 members of the U.S. Senate voted for the same thing. It did not quite garner the two-thirds vote needed to move the amendment forward, but Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause, called it a good first step.

After the vote in New York, she said, “Citizens United and related court decisions have upended our politics, allowing big money interests to drown out the voices of everyday Americans. The good news is that we can win this fight and pass a 28th amendment to the Constitution. I’m especially pleased that so many members of the New York legislature crossed party lines to join this effort. New York is the first [state] with at least one chamber under Republican control in which a majority of lawmakers have endorsed an amendment.”

Many critics of the Citizen’s United decision say it is the most important issue facing the country today, as a post in MAYDAY.US indicates, “We believe that the root issue in American democratic failure is the way politicians raise money. Every other issue is connected to privately financed campaigns.”

A post on another anti-Citizens United website, movetoamend.org, says, “We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United and other related cases, and move to amend our Constitution to firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.”

This newspaper does not endorse political candidates, but it does take positions on issues and, in our view, the Citizens United decision and big money in politics in general represent a real threat to our democracy. When considering how to vote in the upcoming elections, whatever the office in question, it would be worthwhile examining where the various candidates stand on this issue, whatever office they are running for—as well as whether, when it comes to raising money in politics, they not only talk the talk but walk the walk.

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