Will California Take The Lead In Overturning Citizens United?

A few weeks ago we reported that Eric Griego helped lead a successful battle to get New Mexico to demand, as a state, that its congressional representatives work towards the passage of a constitutional amendment to overturn the corrupt and anti-democratic Citizens United decision by a 5-4 majority from an egregiously corporate-oriented Supreme Court. It has to happen in every state. And it looks like the biggest state could well be next... yes, California.

The Judiciary Committee of the state Assembly has announced it will hold a hearing this Tuesday (at 10AM) on Joint Resolution 22, a resolution calling for a constitutional amendment to overturn the Court's tragically flawed ruling. Public Citizen is asking Californians to contact their state legislators about it to let them know where they stand.

The Citizens United decision led to an upsurge in spending by outside groups. In the 2010 election cycle, the first since the decision, a single Super PAC organization, American Crossroads, spent more than $3.2 million in attack ads against Sen. Barbara Boxer alone, for example.
 
Efforts to rein in corporate political spending are in motion nationwide. Last week, Vermont passed 65 local resolutions calling for a constitutional amendment. More than 4,000 people have signed up nationwide to lead local efforts throughout the spring to pass resolutions in more than 1,000 cities and towns. City councils have passed resolutions calling for an amendment throughout California-- including Los Angeles, Oakland, Davis, Fort Bragg, Richmond, Marina, Petaluma and Fairfax-- and across the country, ranging from New York City to Duluth, Minn., and South Miami, Fla.

Citizens United is a deadly weapon in the hands of the 1%-- of the oligarchs, the corporations, the reactionaries and the plutocrats to fulfill their dream of dismantling democracy itself. And it isn't only about the hundreds of millions of dollars these people are pouring into the Romney campaign now that the Supreme Court has opened the floodgates to unlimited giving. Last week Roll Call reported on how these same extremist, anti-American elements are plotting to further take over Congress on behalf of the wealthy.

Super PACs and other unrestricted groups have moved beyond the presidential campaign trail to target key House and Senate races, and Congressional candidates don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Several candidates have asked their opponents to pledge to bar super PACs and similar third-party groups from their races, emulating the pact signed in January by Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) and his Democratic challenger, Elizabeth Warren.

Yet many House and Senate candidates who publicly decry super PACs are benefiting from the outside groups that back them. Some lawmakers are even donating to or helping raise money for super PACs, which are more likely to tilt close House and Senate contests than the presidential race.

Congressional candidates’ love-hate relationship with super PACs has fueled squabbles and campaign attacks in California, Missouri, Montana and Virginia, as outside groups pour millions of dollars into House and Senate contests. Top spenders include the League of Conservation Voters, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the GOP nonprofit Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies.

So far this year, $130,518,425 has been raised-- almost entirely from wealthy people with a 1% agenda-- to buy elections. One PAC alone-- basically funded by two dozen billionaires and multimillionaires, almost all of them criminal financial operatives-- has raised $36,797,202 for Romney's SuperPAC. Gingrich's clownish SuperPAC has raised $13,114,797, almost every dime of it from a Mafia connected international gambling magnate. Sheldon Adelson, hoping to push Washington into lowering his taxes and bombing Iran-- two ideas Gingrich has, of course, embraced. Another far right SuperPAC financed by sociopaths dedicated to destroying democracy, American Crossroads, has raised $23,439,951 and Freedomworks, a similar outfit financed by similarly sleazy interests has brought in another $3,045,084. Even a hopeless boob like Rick Perry managed to raise $5,485,885-- and over a million of it is still left over, likely to go to whichever Republican offers Perry the plummiest job.