Democracy

Super PACs dominated the 2012 Senate election between Tammy Baldwin and Tommy Thompson, providing an avenue for floods of out-of-state money to fill WIsconsin's airwaves with negative ads. Outside groups (not the candidates or party committees) spent almost $32 million and virtually all of that money (99.2%) came from out of state groups. Super PACs allowed big money special interests to flood the Wisconsin elections, blocking regular WI voter out of the political discourse.

Elections Confidential reveals, to the extent possible, the dark side of the post-Citizens United election landscape. Secret donors used "dark money" groups that don't have to disclose their donors, because before Citizens United they weren't allowed to spend on elections in order to hide their identity. Despite widespread public support for disclo­sure and decades of legal precedent supporting the public’s right to know the sources of elec­tion-related spending, voters were bombarded with messages from secretly-funded, innocu­ously-named “dark money” non-profits that do not disclose their funding sources. Even those groups that do disclose their donors received millions from fake corporations that covered the money trail. Citizens United threw our existing campaign finance regulations into disarray and we need stronger, revised transparency laws to protect the public's right to follow the money and monitor who is working to shape our government.

Billion Dollar Democracy is the final edition in our series of reports analyzing the role of money in the 2012 elections. The first presidential election since Citizens United lived up to the hype, with outside groups blowing away previous records for spending. Our discourse got more negative than ever before, with secret organizations allowing anonymous donors to bankroll nasty attack ads. Regular people's voices were drowned out of the process, with big time mega-donors spending millions in their attempt to buy our democracy. Just 32 mega-donors to Super PACs, giving $9.9 million each, matched the entire contribution of all 3.7 million regular Americans who made small donations to the Obama and Romney campaigns. Special interest gained more power and more access, making it less likely that our government will truly be "of, by, and for the people."