Post-midterms, free speech under attack… AGAIN

HELENA – This year’s elections were the most expensive midterm ever, estimated at more than $3.6 billion, and the money is coming from fewer donors and increasingly from “dark money” groups – those that don’t disclose their donors.

Dark money groups spent at least $219 million, 69% of it in support of Republicans. Senator Jon Tester is proposing a bill to rein in and shed light on some of that spending.

The measure calls for disclosure of those who donate five thousand dollars to nonprofits that engage in politicking. It would also make the IRS post some political groups’ tax forms online.

“So it’s a great, narrow set of regulations that going the people who are spending a tremendous amount of money to influence the outcome of elections,” commented Denise Roth Barber with the National Institute on Money in State Politics.

“We need to get big money out of our elections. But until we do the American people deserve to know who’s paying fort the ads on their TVs,” Tester said.

Tester himself benefited from the dark money group Montana Hunters and Anglers that urged people to vote for the libertarian in Tester’s 2012 Senate race.

He said candidates also lose from the system that forces them to spend so much time fundraising.

Senator-elect Steve Daines said he’s also concerned about transparency in politics, but said the U.S. Supreme Court had free speech protections in mind when it made the Citizens United decision that allowed more dark money.