political fundraising

in a previous post i noted my objection to the decision in citizen united v. FEC that essentially determined that corporations have free speech rights akin to individuals and therefore could not be stifled in their political contributions.

in recent weeks, president obama and other prominent democrats have been complaining about the chamber of commerce's political advertising and making accusations that our political system is being influenced by shadowy figures and possibly foreign entities. of course, this is without any proof whatsoever. the chamber of commerce denies using foreign money. factcheck.org can't find any wrongdoing. in fact, when obamas senior advisor david axelrod was asked for evidence of the chamber of commerce using secret foreign money the best response he could provide was "well, can you show me evidence that it's not?" so now the focus has moved to the chamber revealing their list of donors. however, being a tax exempt organization the president knows that the chamber is under no legal obligation to do so.

it is interesting that there is a demand for donor lists. in 2008, obama made a pledge to use public campaign financing but then quickly backtracked on that pledge when he saw how much more money could be raised via private funding. with this private funding came a closer inspection of the source of these funds. go here to see a thorough list of articles that illustrate the pledge and possible foreign sourced funds being given to the obama campaign.

opensecrets.org has an excellent breakdown of where all the campaign cash is coming from this campaign season.
here's a snapshot:
** 53% of all business contributions go to democrats
** 53% of all ideological contributions go to democrats
** 93% of all labor contributions go to democrats

considering the majority of campaign contributions are being steered towards the democratic party, the white house complaints about the chamber of commerce just seem like sour grapes that the chamber doesn't agree with the administrations policies. or is it really a realization and fear that the chamber's anti-administration message has become more resonant with the public?

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