http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/10/04/101589/tidal-wave-of-outside-money-swamping.html#storylink=omni_popular#ixzz11XVPV5Q0
Oh somebody is buying big favor and it's definitely not the majority of the taxpayers
How much do you figure the investment banks and wall street have chipped in?
Taking that much money promised big favors
Collusion of the corruption.
Yeah that was some transparency in that rule change.
Obama sure shut this down didn't he?
Him and Hillary are going to have a field day running together with this much money.
Half a billion dollars from independent groups with strong but unofficial connections to Republicans and Democrats is flooding into congressional campaigns across the country this year, according to a study released Monday.
The Center for Public Integrity found that Republican-allied groups are likely to outspend their Democratic-oriented rivals by 3 to 2, and maybe even by 2 to 1. The center is a respected nonprofit, nonpartisan source of investigative journalism devoted to making institutional power transparent and accountable.
While big money in politics is hardly new, there never have been sums of this magnitude in midterm elections. The Center for Responsive Politics, another independent research group, estimates that in 2006, the last nonpresidential federal election year, independent interests spent about $300 million.
Further, never have so many donors been unidentified before elections; so far only about one-third of donors have been identified, the Center for Public Integrity study says.
"What this amounts to, say veteran money and politics watchers, is a virtual Wild West, with fewer rules and more cash than ever," says the study, written by center analyst Peter Stone. Each party's allies now can cite "10 or so deep-pocketed independent groups with plans to spend $10 million-plus helping Senate and House candidates by running expensive ads and/or conducting get-out-the-vote efforts."
Previous elections were waged under rules that limited how much a donor could give. The rules changed this year.
The key reason is January's 5-4 Supreme Court ruling in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case. It removed curbs on independent expenditures by corporations and unions, freeing them to spend without limit from their own treasuries on campaign ads and advocacy efforts so long as they're not coordinated with candidate campaigns.
Under tax and campaign-finance laws, most of these independent groups aren't required to disclose their donors until after the elections.
"Now, if you're a company that wants to write a $10 million check to help or hurt a candidate, you can go to town," said Dave Levinthal, a spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics.
The spending spree also is rooted in other causes, including
