The invisible rivers of campaign money
We’re headed into midterm season and today we talk about money: specifically, the money flowing into campaigns this season, including who’s getting it, how they’re getting it and who it’s coming from. The difficulty is, our political system has many different mechanisms that get money to candidates.
New Supreme Court rulings now let independent expenditure committees, or “SuperPACS” and other political action committees accept and spend unlimited amounts of money on campaign ads that either support or defame candidates. They can do this without having to disclose who their donations are coming from or how much money is donated.
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, council at The Brennan Center for Justice, and Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen, help us navigate the confusing and branching tributaries of campaign money.
The story you just read is available to read for free because thousands of listeners and readers like you generously support our nonprofit newsroom. Every day, the reporters and producers at The World are hard at work bringing you human-centered news from across the globe. But we can’t do it without you: We need your support to ensure we can continue this work for another year.
When you make a gift of $10 or more a month, we’ll invite you to a virtual behind-the-scenes tour of our newsroom to thank you for being with The World.