Citizens United ruling leads to plague of political ads

With a major election just around the corner, political marketing dominates the media. You can run, but you can’t hide from the accusations, insults and innuendo. Attack ads are typically bad with an election around the corner, but politicians this year are setting new lows. For that you are able to thank the Supreme Court, and its ruling called Citizens United, which permitted unlimited spending by special interests, in secret, to launch ad campaigns that influence elections.

The Citizens United ruling

The Citizens United ruling was a landmark decision by the Supreme Court declaring that corporate funding of independent political advertising can’t be limited under the First Amendment. A provision of the McCain- Feingold Act, or the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, was stopped by the Supreme Court which was good for Citizens United. The provision barred all corporations, both for-profit and non-profit, plus unions from running broadcast, cable, or satellite marketing that mentioned a candidate within 60 days of a general election or thirty days of a primary.

What Citizens United was able to change

The Citizens United ruling will be widely seen with the mid-term election coming up. In every state, the airwaves are overrun with a deluge of deceptive attack ads sponsored by special interests using front groups with misleading names. Nobody even tells the voters who is running their ads. According to the new York Times, even foreign corporations are spending freely to get candidates in their back pockets elected. In a report issued Tuesday by the Center for American Progress, the United States Chamber of Commerce is collecting “dues” to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars from foreign companies in Bahrain, India and Egypt and using the money to purchase ads for Republicans in midterm races.

What Citizens United should prepare for

The Los Angeles Times tells us what the real problem is with Citizens United. The Times writes that in the last two years government has stood up to the abuses of the financial industry and insurance companies. You will find less tax breaks for companies shipping jobs oversea. We are also enforcing clean air and water rules. But thanks to Citizens United, Republicans are hoping to ride a wave of unregulated, out of control political spending to victory in November. If that happens, the lobbyists will start writing the laws once more. The Times said congress has a responsibility to fix the problem. Even if they do, it will be too late to stem the damage already done in this election.

Citations

New York Times

nytimes.com/2010/10/06/opinion/06wed1.html?scp=2 and amp;sq=us chamber and amp;st=cse

Los Angeles Times

latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/09/weekly-remarks-greg-walden-stop-tax-hikes-obama.html