Face it, Citizens United (unlimited PAC contributions) was a non-factor in 2012

[banned from Kos]

They outspent us and we won POTUS by about the same percent numbers.

We KICKED ASS in the Senate despite their 23-10 advantage in pickup opportunities.

Sheldon Adelson and the Koch Brothers were no match for President Obama.

Throw Gallup and Ras out and Romney never did really lead in the polls.

CU is not worth a big legislative fight.

[ailsagirl]

1. Unbelievably, YES!!!

[pinto]

2. Good point.

[JaneyVee]

3. I believe it is worth the fight. The bigger picture will open many people's eyes.

[rzemanfl]

4. Not to the people who got all the money while tax rates are still

low.

[hlthe2b]

5. Those of us in contested states that were inundated--could not watch tv, answer the phone, or

in many cases listen to the radio without facing an intensely unpleasant barrage of ads for months and months and months and months and months and months on end, would beg to differ.

THAT is why they failed and why this will have to be resolved. The public will NOT put up with it.

[Ohio Joe]

6. Bullshit

"CU is not worth a big legislative fight."

This turd cannot be forgotten and left to continue it's undermining of our voting process. It was combated this time because it was talked about a lot, not because it is ok to have.

Fuck Citizens United, it has to go.

[banned from Kos]

10. PAC money is like the filibuster

you love it when it is on your side.

You hate it when they use it.

[Ohio Joe]

16. Bullshit

This race should have been nowhere near as close as it was... The only reason it was is because of the shit-loads of cash the 1% thew out to blanket everything in their lies.

The shit needs to be gone.

[laundry_queen]

22. Amen

Without CU, this race wouldn't have been nearly as close. Just because the good guys won THIS TIME doesn't mean CU didn't have an impact. What a bullshit premise. Not surprising considering who wrote it though.

[banned from Kos]

23. There is no Constitutional way to ban 3rd party political advertising

Yes, I am an ACLU donor and supporter (we are FOR CU).


eta "for"

[ibegurpard]

25. Of course there is

and because of CU the only way is a constitutional amendment

[Ohio Joe]

27. Corporations are NOT people my friend... Spare me the bullshit

Go pimp for the 1% with someone else, I'm done here.

I hate it when people fuck with my high.

[banned from Kos]

28. Adelson and the Kochs were giving PERSONAL money to GOP PACS

Corporate money was relatively trivial in 2012.

Don't strawman me.

[banned from Kos]

31. Calm down. Your list includes many unions that I want contributions from.

Why silence unions?

Why silence anyone?

Adelson flushed his money down a toilet. Take him from the list (Las Vegas Sands) and we are 50/50 on PAC money.

[Jackpine Radical]

33. Just an idle question--

Will they let you into Free Repugnant with a username like "Banned from DU?"

[thelordofhell]

7. Wrong!!!!!!!

With the money that flowed from the richest pricks to the media, it was apparent that the M$M was going to blast that this election was horribly close just to get all that add money........and it worked. Mitt the twit was bolstered by this money........he should have been dead in the water campaigning, but the M$M & Citizen's United cash kept this nimrod going with his campaign of denial.

[Bohunk68]

26. I think you are absolutely corrct.

I wouldn't be counting the chickens just yet. CU is still in force and those persons still have lots of money to throw around. I think we might have had a good chance to take back the House if there had not been all that Kock/Adelson money going around. And, don't count out KKKarl rove just yet either. The job is NOT done.

[Zorra]

8. No. We need to get the money out of politics.

End of story.

[Viking12]

9. Nonsense.

Even if they didn't get the electoral victories they desired, they bought the 'political conversation' they wanted. Climate change? Dead. Deficits the nations biggest worry? Not. Win or lose at the ballot box, they've won because the elected officials of all stripes ar going to be conducting business within the framework money bought and paid for.

[thucythucy]

11. This is just my opinion, but

I think without outside super PAC money the Democrats would have swept the House as well as keeping the Senate. And the president's margin of victory would have been higher.

We dodged a bullet this time. R-Money was a singularly inept and unsympathetic candidate, while the Obamas (and President Clinton) are superb. We might not always be this lucky.

Citizens United needs to be undone, either through the appointment of new Supreme Court justices, or legislatively through constitutional amendment.

Corporations are NOT people, my friend.

[Liberal In Texas]

12. Not true.

It's still a factor down ticket, a BIG factor.

We need still need to fight this.

[LuvLoogie]

13. Bullshit. The obscene money game needs to be legislatively decomissioned.

We still need to turn the tide in the state and local bodies of government. They have the cash to overwhelm the little guys while the DNC and Washington aren't looking. We at least need disclosure. We need a campaign to publicly ridicule the GOP official opposition to disclosure. We need to expose their sabotage of good governance. We need to shine a light on their false patriotism.

Every day. Every time.

[Carnage251]

14. Totally wrong

There is no telling how many close races were won by repukes because of unlimited spending.

[Barack_America]

15. Tell that to the defeated collective bargaining and renewable energy props in MI.

Among others.

[jzola]

17. Actually---Not True!

They poured money into campaigns that ended up very tight---that wouldn't have been---without their dirt. And they won a few that they would have lost. Maybe where you live it didn't mater. In places like Arizona it mattered a lot. They came in with over $600,000 in the last week of the district 9 campaign . Don't be naive. This was an obscenely expensive election. We were mostly lucky this time.

[ibegurpard]

18. it can't be a big legislative fight

It has to be a constitutional amendment and to say that because we had to put almost everything we had into just maintaining the status quo against this deluge somehow negates the effect of it is naive, dangerous, and wrong.

[banned from Kos]

32. True - and an Amendment will never happen

same effect.

[dsc]

19. We lost the House because of it

because we lost state legislatures and were gerrymandered to death. In my state (NC) we are likely to never, I mean never, see a Democratic legislative majority again and that is all thanks to the fact they used CU to buy the legislative majority in 2010. So yeah, for some of us, it is worth a fight. Also, does anyone seriously think that the next Sherrod Brown isn't going to think twice before stirring up the amount of money that was spent against him.

[Nye Bevan]

20. Yep. Ask Linda McMahon if money is speech.

She has blown through $100 million trying unsuccessfully to buy a CT senate seat. Yes, candidates can spend millions on advertising, but voters are smart enough to do the right thing. I expect we will be hearing a lot less about CU going forward.

[ToxMarz]

21. A little different take I read somewhere earlier

The big money donors allowed unqualified crazy candidates to enter and stay in the primaries longer, damaging each other and the Republican image before the general election even began.

Also allowed crazy candidates in other races (Akin, Murdock, West, etc) to have their nutty ideas heard and rejected and further damaging the Republican brand.

Still needs to be done away with because over time and with practice, they will fine tune it.

[nc4bo]

24. CU played a pretty large part in NC's brand spanking new Tea Party Republican majority!!

So much outside money poured in to influence voters (Dems also played a role effing it up) but CU helped usher in some real trouble here.

[cthulu2016]

30. Wrong, Wrong, Wrong

We lost a large intrinsic fundraising advantage from being the larger party.

A lot of people on DU gave money they probably could barely afford out of the very real need to offset a handful of billionaires.

It is crazy to say it was a non-factor