{"id":4716,"date":"2011-04-30T02:53:21","date_gmt":"2011-04-30T09:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=4716"},"modified":"2011-04-30T02:53:21","modified_gmt":"2011-04-30T09:53:21","slug":"action-alert-force-donation-disclosure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/04\/30\/action-alert-force-donation-disclosure\/","title":{"rendered":"Action Alert: Force Donation Disclosure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Democrats are forming a group that will accept secret denotations to reelect Obama, like the Republican groups, wrongly made legal by Citizens United, that dominated 2010.  Some on the left say this is evidence of a sell out.  I don\u2019t think so.  After examining  the issue more deeply than the knee-jerk reactions of some, I want you to contact the White House to force donation disclosure for all.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"30koch\"Let\u2019s state as clearly as possible that political spending from anonymous donors is bad for our democracy<\/strong> \u2014 whether it\u2019s coming from Republicans or Democrats. Now that leading Dems have announced a new group designed to raise and spend big bucks on Obama\u2019s reelection \u2014 some of it from undisclosed donors \u2014 voters will be seeing reams of ads from the Dem side without knowing who paid for them.<\/font><\/p>\n

That\u2019s wrong. Voters have every right to know who\u2019s funding ads supporting Dems and Republicans alike<\/strong>. <\/font><\/p>\n

But that said, the charge coming from the right this morning \u2014 that this amounts to a brazen and hypocritical sell-out on the part of Democrats \u2014 demands a response.<\/font><\/p>\n

Please, folks, let\u2019s approach this hypocrisy charge with a bit of nuance. Here\u2019s the Republican National Committee\u2019s statement: <\/font><\/p>\n

The Obama White House has completely walked away from the mantle of \u201cchange\u201d in order to embrace the type of politics they once relentlessly attacked. Just as when he reneged on his promise to campaign within the public finance system, this President is all too happy to embrace and discard \u201cprinciples\u201d according to what is most politically expedient for him.<\/font><\/p>\n

The Rove-founded group Crossroads GPS added<\/a><\/font>: \u201cObama\u2019s brazen hypocrisy, in encouraging his own operatives to start groups exactly like the ones he demagogued last year, shows how cynical this President can be when it comes to perpetuating his own power.\u201d<\/font><\/p>\n

There\u2019s one problem with this argument: Obama and Democrats would close this group down tomorrow if groups on the right agreed to do the same<\/em><\/span>.<\/strong> This is not a matter of spin or argument. It\u2019s a matter of simple factual reality that Obama and Democrats have long supported, and continue to support, legislation that would outlaw such non-disclosure \u2014 even for themselves<\/em><\/span>. Dems believe the rules that allow undisclosed spending are wrong, and support changing those rules \u2014 even for themselve<\/em><\/span>s. By contrast, Republicans want to keep the rules as they are, because they believe undisclosed spending is a right that should be protected<\/strong>\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Washington Post<\/a>><\/p>\n

Democrats in the House passed legislation requiring full disclosure.  Republicans in the Senate filibustered it.  This shows that it is false to claim there is no difference between the parties.  Anyone foolish enough to believe such tripe should compare Sotomayor and Kagan with Roberts and Alito.<\/font><\/p>\n

There\u2019s been buzz about an executive order that could potentially end the secrecy.  Lets tell Obama to bring it into the open, as suggested in an email I received yesterday.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"30acal\"President Obama is circulating a draft of an important Executive Order that could enhance disclosure in campaign finance regulations. This order would require disclosure of contributions to "third party" or "independent" expenditure groups by corporations receiving government contracts (which would include big spenders like Koch Industries, JPMorgan Chase, Exxon Mobil, General Electric, and Bank of America).<\/p>\n

During the 2010 elections, much of the unlimited election spending made possible by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision was kept secret by groups taking advantage of the the tax code. The President’s proposed order would lift the veil on secret spending in time for the 2012 elections, at least for those corporations receiving government contracts. Tell President Obama you support this plan and ask him to sign this Executive Order.<\/p>\n

The Executive Order is a step toward limiting the secret corporate spending that tainted the 2010 elections by groups hiding behind their nonprofit status to keep funding sources secret. Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS, for example, spent almost $17 million in 2010 attacking Democratic candidates without disclosing who was funding these attack ads. Over 46% of election spending in 2010 ($135.6 million) was entirely secret. Polls show that 92 percent of Americans want greater disclosure \u2013 add your voice to that number by contacting President Obama.<\/p>\n

Please call the White House at 202-456-1111 and tell President Obama to require disclosure of contributions to "third party" or "independent" expenditure groups by corporations receiving government contracts. Or send an email by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I called and I emailed.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democrats are forming a group that will accept secret denotations to reelect Obama, like the Republican groups, wrongly made legal by Citizens United, that dominated 2010.  Some on the left say this is evidence of a sell out.  I don\u2019t think so.  After examining  the issue more deeply than the knee-jerk reactions of some, I […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4716\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}