Dollarocracy (54 page)

7
. Maggie Haberman, “Donald Trump Says He Won't Run in 2012,” Politico, May 16, 2011.

8
. Sean Hannity transcript, “Trump May Run as Independent if GOP Picks ‘Loser,'”
www.foxnews.com
, June 14, 2011,
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/hannity/transcript/trump-may-run-independent-if-gop-picks-loser
.

9
. Neil King Jr., “Trump Threatens to Spend Millions on a Presidential Run,”
Wall Street Journal
, November 22, 2011.

10
. Michael Waldman, “Why Doesn't Mitt Romney Contribute to His Own Campaign?,” Reuters, September 25, 2012.

11
.
www.opensecrets.org
(accessed February 6, 2013). Many groups analyze and review campaign spending. We think the Center for Responsive Politics' work stands out. We also like that it named its phone app “Dollarocracy.”

12
. Ibid.

13
. Center for Responsive Politics, “2012 Election Spending Will Reach $6 Billion, Center for Responsive Politics Predicts,”
www.opensecrets.org
, October 31, 2012. See section “Rise of the Wealthy Donor.”

14
. Lawrence Lessig, “The Founders Versus the Funders,”
The Progressive
, October 2012, 20–21; Chris Rickert, “Campaign Fundraising Holds Our Attention,”
Wisconsin State Journal
, January 28, 2012.

15
. Sundeep Iyer, “Election Spending 2012: 25 Toss-Up House Races,” report by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School, 2012,
www.brennancenter.org
; Katrina vanden Heuvel, “Is a ‘Citizens United' Democracy a Democracy at All?,”
thenation.com
, October 26, 2012.

16
. Lessig, “The Founders.”

17
. Andy Kroll, “Follow the Dark Money,”
Mother Jones
, July/August 2012, 22.

18
. Felicia Sonmez, “Perry Spent More Than $300 Per Vote in Iowa; Santorum, Only 73 Cents,”
Washington Post
, January 4, 2012.

19
. “Facing Romney's Funding, Staffing Edge, How Will Santorum Fare in N.H.?,” PBS NewsHour, January 4, 2012.

20
. Charles Riley, “Romney Campaign Spent $18.50 Per Vote,” CNNMoney, April 25, 2012.

21
. Dave Levinthal, “President Obama Outspent Mitt Romney in Last Days,” Politico, December 6, 2012.

22
. Elizabeth Wilner, “Romney and Republicans Outspent Obama, but Couldn't Out-Advertise Him: Targeting and Message-Control Carried the Day,”
AdAge
, November 9, 2012.

23
. Ibid., 1.

24
. Nicholas Confessore and Michael Luo, “Obama Allies Feel Pressure to Raise Cash,”
New York Times
, March 14, 2012.

25
. Nicholas Confessore, “Obama Grows More Reliant on Big-Money Contributors,”
New York Times
, September 13, 2012.

26
. Kevin Roose, “Wall St.'s Dinner with Obama: Hold the Scorn,”
dealbook.nytimes.com
, June 23, 2012.

27
. Colleen McCain Nelson, “Political Perceptions: Fundraising Habit Hard to Kick,”
blogs.wsj.com
, September 28, 2012.

28
. Wilner, “Romney and Republicans Outspent Obama.”

29
. Conversation between Robert W. McChesney and Seymour Hersh, May 9, 2005.

30
. Jennifer Liberto, “Wall Street Set to Break Spending Records This Election,”
money.cnn.com
, September 5, 2012. For a treatment of the power of finance over both parties and the U.S. government, see Charles Ferguson,
Predator Nation: Corporate Criminals, Political Corruption, and the Hijacking of America
(New York: Crown Business, 2012). For a treatment of how the “rule of law” has effectively ended in the United States, with all that suggests about the caliber of American democracy, see Glenn Greenwald,
With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful
(New York: Metropolitan Books, 2011).

31
. Daniel Fisher, “Inside the Koch Empire,”
Forbes
, December 24, 2012, 86.

32
. Nick Confessore, “Total Cost of Election Could Be $6 Billion,”
New York Times
, October 31, 2012.

33
. Jonathan D. Salant, “Election Costs to Exceed $6 Billion in 2012, Research Group Says,”
Bloomberg Businessweek
, October 31, 2012.

34
. Christopher Matthews, “Explainer: Did That $6 Billion in Campaign Spending at Least Help the Economy?,”
Time
, November 9, 2012.

35
. Miles Mogulescu, “After $6 Billion Election Campaign, Movement to Get Money Out of Politics Starts a ‘Prairie Fire,'” Huffington Post, November 9, 2012.

36
. Center for Responsive Politics, “Historical Elections,”
http://www.opensecrets.org/bigpicture/
(accessed February 6, 2013).

37
. “Data Points: Presidential Campaign Spending: Barack Obama's $150 Million September Fundraising Total Is Over a Fifth of the Total Amount of Money All the Presidential Candidates Spent in the 2004 Election,”
U.S. News & World Report
, October 21, 2008.

38
. Center for Responsive Politics, “2012 Election Spending.”

39
. Thomas Ferguson, Paul Jorgensen, and Jie Chen, “Revealed: Key Files on Big-Ticket Political Donations Vanish at Federal Election Commission,” AlterNet, July 16, 2012.

40
. Luke Rosiak, “Toothless, Overwhelmed FEC Is Ignored by Campaigns,”
Washington Times
, September 17, 2012.

41
. Taylor Lincoln, “Super Connected: Super PACs Devotion to Individual Candidates Undercuts Assumption in Citizens United That Outside Spending Would Be ‘Independent,'” Public Citizen, October 24, 2012,
www.citizen.org
.

42
. Jeremy W. Peters, “Conservative ‘Super PACs' Synchronize Their Messages,”
New York Times
, September 24, 2012.

43
. Kenneth P. Vogel and Tarini Parti, “The IRS's ‘Feeble' Grip on Big Political Cash,” Politico, October 15, 2012.

44
. Center for Responsive Politics, “2012 Election Spending.”

45
. Alison Fitzgerald and Jonathan D. Salant, “Secret Political Cash Moves Through Nonprofit Daisy Chain,”
businessweek.com
, October 15, 2012.

46
. Paul Abowd, “Tracking the Secret Money Behind an Anti-Environmental Political Group,” open
channel.nbcnews.com
, October 22, 2012.

47
. Brendan Fischer, “Why Don't We Know How Much ‘Dark Money' Groups Have Spent on the Election?,” Center for Media and Democracy's PRWatch, November 5, 2012,
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/11/11838/why-dont-we-know-how-much-dark-money-groups-have-spent-election
.

48
. Ibid.

49
. Paul Blumenthal, “Romney Victory Raises $140 Million, Exploits Campaign Finance Loophole,” Huffington Post, July 16, 2012.

50
. Lisa Graves, “After the $6 Billion Election, Calls for Subpoenas and Amendments,” Center for Media and Democracy's PRWatch, November 15, 2012; italics added.

51
. Brendan Fischer, “Outside Election Spending Up at Least 400% Since 2008,” Center for Media and Democracy's PRWatch, November 2, 2012,
www.prwatch.org
.

52
. Peter H. Stone, “Sheldon Adelson Spent Far More on Campaign Than Previously Known,” Huffington Post, December 3, 2012.

53
. Interview with Center for Media and Democracy staff, December 4, 2012.

54
. Adam Crowther,
Outside Money Takes the Inside Track
(Washington, DC: Public Citizen, 2012).

55
. Kim Barker, “In Montana, Dark Money Helped Democrats Hold a Key Senate Seat,” talking
pointsmemo.com
, December 29, 2012.

56
. John Nichols, “ALEC Exposed,”
The Nation
, July 12, 2011.

57
. SourceWatch, “Betsy DeVos,”
www.sourcewatch.org
, January 12, 2012.

58
. Associated Press, “DeVos PAC Fined Record $5.2 Million by Ohio Elections Board,” April 5, 2008.

59
. Ibid.

60
. John Nichols, “Scott Walker's Billionaire Boys Club: Big Money Backs Anti-Labor Agenda,”
The Nation
, May 2, 2012,
http://www.thenation.com/blog/167664/scott-walkers-billionaire-boys-club-big-money-backs-anti-labor-agenda
.

61
. Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, “Recall Race for Governor Cost $81 Million: Fifteen Recall Races in 2011 and 2012 Cost $137 Million,”
www.wisdc.org
, July 25, 2012.

62
. Ibid.

63
. Brendan Fischer, “Wisconsin Newspapers Create False Equivalency on Recall Spending,” Center for Media and Democracy's PRWatch, May 24, 2012.

64
. Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, “Recall Race.”

65
. For Washington, see Andrew Garber, “Tab for Governor's Race: $46 million: Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Rob McKenna and Democrat Jay Inslee Have Raised About $25 Million Combined, and an Additional $21 Million Has Been Thrown in by Independent Expenditure Campaigns,”
Seattle Times
, November 3, 2012; this report was from the weekend
before
the election. For Missouri, see Chris Jasper, “Campaign Spending Fuels Missouri Races,”
MU Maneater
, November 2, 2012. For North Carolina, see John Frank, “Governor: McCrory Becomes First Republican to Win Governor's Race in 20 Years,”
News and Observer
, November 7, 2012; Chris Kromm, “Big Money Plays Big Role in North Carolina Elections,” Facing South (Institute for Southern Studies), November 14, 2012,
http://www.southernstudies.org/2012/11/big-money-plays-big-role-in-north-carolina-elections.html
. For New Hampshire, see Brian Wallstin, “Hassan's Win Powered by $11 Million in Outside Spending,” New Hampshire Public Radio, November 16, 2012.

66
. National Institute on Money in State Politics, “Total Dollars for All Gubernatorial Candidates,” December 12, 2012,
http://www.followthemoney.org/database/nationalview.phtml?l=0&f=G&y=2012&abbr=0
.

67
. Alexander Burns, “RSLC Raises $38 Million for the Cycle,” Politico, October 31, 2012.

68
. John Surico, “NYAG Eric Schneiderman's New Wall Street Fraud Target: Credit Suisse,”
Village Voice
, November 21, 2012; and “Republican Attorneys General Association,” Center for Media and Democracy's SourceWatch (accessed January 14, 2013).

69
. “Republican Attorneys General Association”; R. Jeffrey Smith and Tania Branigan, “GOP Attorneys General Asked for Corporate Contributions,”
Washington Post
, July 17, 2003.

70
. “RSLC Statement on 2012 Elections,”
rslc.com
, November 07, 2012.

71
. Ibid.

72
. Chris Dickerson, “Morrisey Files to Run for AG,” West Virginia,”
West Virginia Record
, January 28, 2012.

73
. Associated Press, “Non-Candidate Ad Spending in W.Va. Races Tops $5M,”
Huntington (WV) Herald-Dispatch
, October 22, 2012.

74
. Ry Rivard, “Huge Out-Of-State Spending in West Virginia Attorney General's Race,”
Charleston Daily Mail
, October 18, 2012.

75
. West Virginia Secretary of State, “Electioneering Communications & Independent Expenditures,” and “Electioneering Communications” listings,
http://apps.sos.wv.gov/elections/ecie/
(accessed December 6, 2012).

76
. American Future Fund, “The AG Project,”
http://americanfuturefund.com/agproject/
(accessed December 6, 2012).

77
. National Institute on Money in State Politics, “Missouri 2012,”
http://www.followthemoney.org/database/state_overview.phtml?y=2012&s=MO
(accessed December 6, 2012).

78
. Riley, “Romney Campaign.”

79
. California Fair Political Practices Commission, “2012 Independent Spending on Legislative Races,” and National Institute on Money in State Politics, “California 2012,”
http://www.followthemoney.org/database/state_overview.phtml?y=2012&s=CA
(both accessed November 20, 2012).

80
. National Institute, “California 2012”; Karl Kurtz, “What Role Will Independent PACs Play in State Legislative Races?,” “The Thicket” at
State Legislatures
, May 22, 2012; Karen Shanton, “Big Money Making a Big Splash in Some State Legislative Races,” “The Thicket” at
State Legislatures
, November 2, 2012.

81
. See Diane Ravitch,
The Death and Life and the Great American School System
(New York: Basic Books, 2010).

82
. Mayoral Elections Center, U.S. Conference of Mayors,
http://www.usmayors.org/elections/displayelections2012listing.asp
.