Dark Money Groups Will Have To Disclose Their Donors In Time For The Midterms
09/18/2018 06:20 pm ET
A court order invalidating a rule that kept some election spending secret is going into effect.
By Paul Blumenthal
There may be a whole lot less dark money in federal elections after the Supreme Court allowed a lower court decision to go into effect on Tuesday invalidating a key regulation that created a loophole for undisclosed spending.
The decision came about after Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a liberal watchdog group, fought for the past six years to get the Federal Election Commission to enforce campaign finance laws against Crossroads GPS, a conservative nonprofit group founded by Karl Rove, a senior adviser to George W. Bush when he was president. CREW finally won its battle on Tuesday.
As of Sept. 18, any group that runs an independent expenditure ― election ads that expressly call for the election or defeat of a candidate ― in excess of $250 will have to disclose all political donors above $200.
“This is a great day for transparency and democracy,” Noah Bookbinder, CREW’s executive director, said in a statement. “Three courts, including the Supreme Court, have now rejected Crossroads’ arguments for a stay, meaning we’re about to know a lot more about who is funding our elections.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dark-money-disclosure-2018_us_5ba1691ce4b046313fc03baa
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