Too Much Special Interest Influence in our Elections

There’s too much special interest money in our political system and a recent Supreme Court decision has the potential to make it much worse. In Citizens United v. FEC, the Court ruled that the First Amendment gives corporations, unions and oftentimes sham non-profits unlimited ability to influence our elections. In other words, allowing special interests to spend millions of dollars for or against different candidates or measures and drown out the voices of regular Americans.

That’s unacceptable! Special interests and foreign-owned corporations like BP should not have the ability to use millions in corporate dollars to influence our elections. That’s why I cosponsored the DISCLOSE ACT, HR 5175, to require special interest groups who sponsor campaign ads to disclose who they are, where they get their funding, where their home base is and how they plan on spending it to influence our elections. Last month the House of Representatives passed this measure. It will provide critical transparency and accountability to our electoral process.

That’s also why earlier this year I introduced an Amendment, to the U.S. Constitution (H.J. RES 84) giving individual states and Congress the authority to regulate campaign finance and limit the influence of special interests in our elections. Frankly, until we amend our Constitution the Supreme Court will whittle away at our representative democracy.

Money should not equal free speech. We must fight to make sure the people’s voice is the loudest voice we hear.

Kurt Schrader