Money In Politics

A Presentation to

The League of Women Voters of Kent County, DE

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Chris Asay, September 2020

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What Is Your Most Important Issue?

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• Climate Change
• Environmental Protection
• Voting Rights
• Citizen Rights
• International Relations
• Arms Control

• Defense Spending
• Equal Opportunity
• Health Care
• Education
• Criminal Justice Reform
• Immigration

Are You Making Progress?

• Especially at the national level.
• Is progress slower than you’d like?
• Is your legislator slow to respond?
• Are you only seeing generic emails? Or speaking only with aides?
• Does the Congress, as a whole, seem reluctant to act, despite widespread public desire?

Who Does Congress Work For?

Who Does Congress Work For?

Does It Work? Yes, Spending = Winning!

Spending on Elections Has Skyrocketed!

And That’s Only Part Of It

Two Kinds of Election Spending

• Contributions Directly to Candidates
• Graphs from previous slide
• Contribution amounts limited to $2,800
• Large donors are publicly identified
• Lots of money, but less than…
• “Independent” Expenditures
• May support or oppose a candidate (or ballot initiative)
• “Not coordinated with candidates campaigns”
• Much more money involved – NO LIMITS!
• Donors are mostly hidden

Money Also Strongly Influences�The Conversation

• Before Legislative Decision-making
• Data (Science discredited or corrupted)
• Analysis (Educational institutions corrupted)
• Public discussion in Media (No longer independent)
• After Legislative Decision-making
• In the Courts (selecting corporate-friendly judges)

Money In Politics Definition

The use of money to influence the political process �such that the decisions and actions of legislative representatives tend to favor the needs of moneyed interests over the needs and the will of the people �they represent

Because of Money in Politics

• No response to to the public’s concerns by legislators
• Legislators focus is on the large amounts of money needed for re-election
• That money is coming from large corporations and the wealthy
• Currently, few limits on the flow of money to corrupt legislators, educational institutions, the media, and the courts

Your Top Issue?

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• Money In Politics
• Climate Change
• Environmental Protection
• Voting Rights
• Citizen Rights
• International Relations
• Arms Control

• Defense Spending
• Equal Opportunity
• Health Care
• Education
• Criminal Justice Reform
• Immigration

What Has the League Done?

LWV-US History on Money in Politics

• Very active against MIP since the 1970s
• Policy Positions on federal legislation are many
• Registered outrage over the 2010 Citizens United decision, but formulated no position nor plan for overturn
• Currently, no Position on “corporate personhood” or “money = free speech”

Proposal

Proposal to the League

Perform a Study and take Positions on two Money in Politics issues:

“Corporate Personhood”

“Money = Free Speech”

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Corporate Personhood

Corporate Personhood

US Supreme Court rulings that corporations are entitled to the same Constitutional Rights as real people

Constitutional Rights

• Freedoms (religion, speech) and protections (cruel and unusual punishments)
• Human Rights, clearly enumerated in the Bill of Rights and other Constitutional Amendments
• Not limited to those who were entitled to vote
• “People” or “persons”, not “citizens”
• No mention of corporations

Early Corporations

• Our Founders were wary of corporations
• Pre-revolutionary corporate charters had been granted by kings and were often monopolistic
• In US, corporate charters were set by states, and tightly restrained
• Limited time of existence
• Limited activities & capital accumulation
• Limited liability for shareholders encouraged investment

State Expansion of Corporate “Rights”

• States gradually relaxed rules limiting corporate activities (Due to the influence of Money In Politics)
• Eternal life (ended renewal requirements)
• Allowed corporate ownership in other corporations, in other states
• Greatly expanding limits on capital accumulation (now none)
• States began a “race to the bottom,” vying for corporations to charter in their state

Further Expansion of “Rights” for Corporations, by the Courts

• Began referring to corporations as “persons”
• Corporate advertising is “free speech”
• Provided corporations a “right to privacy”
• Corporate right “not to speak”

Modern Corporations

• Now are court-mandated to maximize profits
• Profits must come first, over all other considerations, such as:
• Employee pay and benefits
• Impact of actions on local community and minority populations
• Have hugely increased CEO salaries and benefits, now in direct relation to short-term profitability

Large Corporations

• Are willing to spending millions of dollars in advertising to support/oppose candidates, and support/oppose ballot initiatives
• Find that generous “investment” in politicians reaps huge financial returns
• Can hide their “investments” in politicians through non-profits which don’t have to reveal funders (No bad PR)

Money = Free Speech

Money = Free Speech

US Supreme Court rulings that the ability to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections is free speech protected by the Constitution

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Court Distortion of “Corruption”

• Narrowing its definition of “corruption”
• Corruption only happens with quid-pro-quo (cash directly to the politician for specific favors)
• No other monetary actions can corrupt (Such as buying ads in favor of the candidate, or against an opponent)

Court Distortion of “Free Speech”

• Gradual expansion of “protected speech” to include spending money on advertising to influence elections
• National legislation to limit election spending struck down, piece by piece (beginning in 1976)

The Result

The Result

Large Corporations can now rely on �First Amendment Free Speech Rights �to spend millions of dollars on advertising for corporate-friendly candidates, against corporate-wary candidates, and against ballot initiatives they don’t like.

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Spending = Winning

Spending on Elections Keeps Rising

And Congress Works For Them!

If money is speech,�then we have no say!

Taking Action

Reversing the Supreme Court

• Cannot be overturned by legislation in Congress.
• The Supreme Court is majority corporation-friendly, so it is unlikely to reverse itself.
• An Amendment to the Constitution can reverse these rulings.

a Constitutional Amendment is needed.

For addressing these two issues,

Move to Amend’s Proposed 28th Amendment

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Section 1 - A corporation is not a person and can be regulated

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The rights protected by the Constitution of the United States are the rights of natural persons only.

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Artificial entities, such as corporations, limited liability companies, and other entities, established by the laws of any State, the United States, or any foreign state shall have no rights under this Constitution and are subject to regulation by the People, through Federal, State, or local law.

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The privileges of artificial entities shall be determined by the People, through Federal, State, or local law, and shall not be construed to be inherent or inalienable.

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Section 2 - Money is not speech and can be regulated

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Federal, State and local government shall regulate, limit, or prohibit contributions and expenditures, including a candidate’s own contributions and expenditures, for the purpose of influencing in any way the election of any candidate for public office or any ballot measure.

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Federal, State and local government shall require that any permissible contributions and expenditures be publicly disclosed.

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The judiciary shall not construe the spending of money to influence elections to be speech under the First Amendment.

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Actions You Can Take Now!

• Join one or more Money In Politics groups
• Move to Amend
• Represent.Us
• Issue One
• Participate in Money in Politics Study
• Encourage LWV-DE and LWV-US to act on Corporate Personhood and Money = Free Speech

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• American Promise
• Wolf-PAC
• MAYDAY America

Thank You!