This article by Jon Schwarz appeared in The Intercept on December 6th, 2019. But first a Community Rights commentary by Community Rights US Founder and Director Paul Cienfuegos.
Most US’ians believe that it was the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision that opened the floodgates for corporate and gazillionaire money in our elections. That people think this is not surprising, given that it’s what the media all teach, from CBS and PBS to Democracy Now and Thom Hartmann. Sadly, even Move To Amend teaches this myth. In fact, it was a much lesser known Supreme Court decision, Buckley v. Valeo way back in 1976 that opened those floodgates. And a young Republican lawyer named John Bolton played a pivotal role!
DEMOCRATIC SEN. KAMALA HARRIS of California suspended her presidential campaign on Tuesday. Why? Because, she said, she did not “have the financial resources we need to continue. I’m not a billionaire. I can’t fund my own campaign.”
Meanwhile, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who definitely is a billionaire, has spent at least $57 million of his own money since he jumped into the race on November 24. Harris, by contrast, raised $36 million as of her last campaign filing in October. Of that, she’d spent almost $26 million since she announced her campaign last January 21.
The divergence in the fates of the two candidates can be traced back to a Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of campaign finance law. But the case involved is not Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, from 2010. It’s a far less famous one: Buckley v. Valeo, from 1976. The decision opened the door for billionaires — and, more generally, the ultra-rich — to spend as much as they want on their own political campaigns.
(To read the rest of the news story at its original source please click HERE.)