Let's All Say "Cards on the Table," Again!
by Susan C. Strong, Founder & Executive Director, The Metaphor Project, http://www.metaphorproject.org, author, Move Our Message: How to Get America's Ear
Business and personal cards, that is. Once again, the word "disclose" is in the air. A federal appeals court recently ruled that big spending political groups must disclose their donors, despite Federal Election Commission fudging on the issue.(1) New light is also being focused on the much ignored second part of the Supreme Court's naà ¯ve and devastating Citizens United decision--which clearly states that full disclosure of donor identity is required.(2) And according to YES! Magazine, as of Spring, 2012, ten states have already passed DISCLOSE bills, with a new one being debated in the
Of course, as we all know, the Supreme Court cannot actually make laws or federal regulations (except by destroying them). Their having reaffirmed the requirement for disclosure might seem just pitiful, given what's going on in political advertising now. However, if even a conservative majority of the Court felt the need to explicitly uphold disclosure in political ads, maybe there's some hope. Perhaps some other brave campaign finance veterans besides Senator McCain will back a new Senate DISCLOSE bill. According to a May 20 th , 2012 New York Times house editorial, McCain has shown interest in Senator Sheldon Whitehouse's (D, RI) new DISCLOSE bill, which requires "timely public disclosure of donors writing checks of $10,000 and more." The bill also includes ""stand by your ad' identifications from the five biggest donors."(4) Even though it has little chance to pass in this poisonous pre-election period, the attempt to create a new DISCLOSE bill would spotlight the issue anew.
As for other approaches to the Citizens United problem, no matter what the Supreme Court decides about the state of
So let's all say "cards on the table" again, as loudly as we can! We Americans must stop gambling with our country's future. Let's call the "cardsharks'" bluff!
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l. The New York Times, 4.02.2012, "A Judge Turns on the Light."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/opinion/a-judge-turns-on-the-light-on-campaign-finance.html . The FEC had ruled that only money that was explicitly contributed for political purposes had to be disclosed, creating a general "donations" loophole that became a superhighway, for deceptive, so-called "issue ads" that actually mentioned candidate names. Although it is probable that the federal court ruling will be appealed, it is also likely that it will be upheld.
2. The New York Times, 5.20.12, mentioned the court's opinion on disclosure in its house editorial, "Bring Back the Real Maverick."
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