You Can Still Follow The Money

Because the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision made it legal to give nearly unlimited cash in elections and not have to disclose where that money is coming from.  But you can see where they money's going, and that's overwhelmingly to Republicans as we enter the last 30 days of the campaign season.

Interest groups are spending five times as much on the 2010 congressional elections as they did on the last midterms, and they are more secretive than ever about where that money is coming from.

The $80 million spent so far by groups outside the Democratic and Republican parties dwarfs the $16 million spent at this point for the 2006 midterms. In that election, the vast majority of money - more than 90 percent - was disclosed along with donors' identities. This year, that figure has fallen to less than half of the total, according to data analyzed by The Washington Post.

The trends amount to a spending frenzy conducted largely in the shadows.

The bulk of the money is being spent by conservatives, who have swamped their Democratic-aligned competition by 7 to 1 in recent weeks. The wave of spending is made possible in part by a series of Supreme Court rulings unleashing the ability of corporations and interest groups to spend money on politics. Conservative operatives also say they are riding the support of donors upset with Democratic policies they perceive as anti-business.

"The outside group spending is primarily being driven by the political climate," said Anthony Corrado, a professor of government at Colby College who studies campaign finance. "Organized groups are looking at great opportunity, and therefore there's great interest to spend money to influence the election. You've got the possibility of a change in the control of Congress." 

Unlimited funds, unlimited attack ads, and no disclosure of campaign money.  Big Wall Street interests can literally spend a few million in order to buy elections, swamping the kind of small donations that made Obama's campaign possible in 2008.  $16 million spent in 2006, $80 million spent so far, and now with unlimited corporate money able to go to the last 30 days of an election who know how many millions more will flow to Republican campaign coffers.

This is the world of politics we now live in.  No matter what happens, America has already lost.