After the Supreme Court ruling on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, liberals were up in arms complaining that the ruling will encourage corporations to take over elections by throwing their money around on the airwaves.
Just ask President Obama, Lee Fisher, and Rep. John Boccieri after the ruling in January:
President Barack Obama, however, called the decision “a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans.”
And U.S. Rep John Boccieri, Democrat of Alliance, said it’s “as if the Supreme Court rolled up to the drive through and super-sized the campaign contributions of big corporations and special interests.”
The exact extent to which Ohioans will be deluged with ads cannot be known for months. A spokesman for Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, who is running against Brunner for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, would not say whether Fisher expects companies to run ads supporting a Republican opponent. But Fisher said through the spokesman, “I believe that voters, not special interest groups, should decide elections, and this ruling undermines that core American value.”
Wow.
After all that, I bet you’d imagine things have been pretty ugly with all those evil corporations buying up all that air time.
Except they aren’t.
Who is?
Unions.
From the Washington Post:
So far this year, $24.7 million in independent spending has been reported to the Federal Election Commission, campaign filings show. Unions have spent $9.7 million (or 39 percent of the total), compared with $6.4 million (26 percent) spent by individuals and $3.4 million spent by corporations.
You read that right. Unions have more than tripled the amount corporations have spent on campaigns this year.
After this news, maybe I do agree with Lee Fisher.
“…voters, not special interest groups, should decide elections…”
