Tell the FEC What To Do About Citizens United
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Elizabeth MacNamara, President of the League of Women Voters, sent a newsletter out this morning asking for your help in overturning Citizens United.
"Another election has come and gone and millions of Americans went to the polls to vote at the local, state and federal levels on the issues and candidates that mattered most to them. While they were working as citizens to make those important decisions, millions of dollars of secret money poured into the 2014 elections from dark money groups which hide the identity of their donors, seeking to buy our elected officials and distort our elections. And we won’t ever know who paid for all of the ads that bombarded voters throughout the election.
What’s more, Super PACs raised and spent more than $600 million dollars in 2014 to elect candidates who will do their bidding and defeat those who might resist. Super PACs and other outside groups can raise and spend unlimited amounts because they are supposedly “independent” from the candidates, but in reality, there are many ways to coordinate that are not blocked by the FEC’s weak regulations.
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) can do something to stop the secret money and end the coordination between Super PACs and candidates, which would put a lid on much of the outside spending from special interests. Tell the FEC to stop the coordinated spending that is poisoning our elections!
The FEC is the federal agency in charge of our nation’s campaign finance laws, but so far they’ve done practically nothing to address the U.S. Supreme Court’s disappointing decision in Citizens United, which unleashed the secret and unlimited spending. The FEC has authority under existing law, even after Citizens United, to set disclosure rules and rigorously define “coordination,” but thus far they have refused to do so. The FEC is now receiving public comment about steps they should take “to address corruption in the political process.” As a League supporter, you know how important specific regulations can be. We need you to tell the FEC to act and enforce the law.
The American voter has a right to know who is funding political campaigns. And the American public has a right to have the law against unlimited coordinated expenditures strictly enforced. We must work to maintain the integrity of our Democracy by ensuring our elected official will be responsive to voters and not to the big money and the secret money from special interests. The stakes are too high, and the League will not stand by and let our political system be corrupted".
