Tea Party is all on board for the Special Exemptions Act

by Brian Leubitz (Note: I work for the Stop Special Exemptions Campaign. Cross-posted to DailyKos)

At first blush, some would think that the Special Exemptions Act would be a step in the right direction.  That it would somehow reform our broken campaign finance system.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, the Special Exemptions Act ends up making the system worse, and more biased against working Californians. It leaves open huge loopholes for Billionaires to spend in SuperPACs and Independent Expenditures(IEs), while stifling the voice of labor and working Californians. It’s an unbalanced and unfair measure that would just increase the power of the undisclosed and poorly regulated SuperPACs and IEs and their tea party allies in California.

How do we know the tea party loves the Special Exemptions Act? Well, how about the San Diego GOP’s very special invitation to a rally for the Act in San Diego a day after they plan how they can smash and burn Obamacare?

STOP SPECIAL INTEREST MONEY BRIEFING… Come learn about this CRITICAL statwide ballot measure in November to ban corporate and union contributions to state legislators to level the playing field and empower taxpayers. (SD GOP)

Except that the measure does nothing of the sort. Corporate money would simply move to IEs and SuperPACs. And that doesn’t even start the discussion of all the exemptions put into the measure to protect their friends. Are you formed as an LLC? You get an exemption! LLP? You get an exemption! Hedge Fund? You get an exemption! It’s almost like the authors of the Act consulted Oprah Winfrey on gift giving.

With the growing power of SuperPACs and IEs, it becomes increasingly easy for corporations to contribute in non-traditional ways that simply aren’t possible for regular Californians. A group of your friends aren’t likely to get together to donate $10 million to a candidate supporting SuperPAC as Sheldon Adelson did a few weeks ago. More locally, a contribution of $100,000 can turn a legislative race on its head. And in several races this year in California, Independent Expenditures spent far more than that.

The Special Exemptions Act does nothing about this so-called outside spending, just facilitates it through new and ever more anonymous routes.  And these SuperPACs and IEs are finding new ways to hide the true source of their money. Just last week, the New York Times reported how “non-profit” corporations are being used to hide corporate money.

Two years after the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision opened the door for corporate spending on elections, relatively little money has flowed from company treasuries into “super PACs,” which can accept unlimited contributions but must also disclose donors. Instead, there is growing evidence that large corporations are trying to influence campaigns by donating money to tax-exempt organizations that can spend millions of dollars without being subject to the disclosure requirements that apply to candidates, parties and PACs.

It probably won’t surprise you too much to learn that the Tea Party has some affinity for these “non-profit” organizations. In fact, Freedomworks, one of the biggest Tea Party funders, is just such a group. It is not required to disclose their donors, and yet they use this money to finance SuperPAC campaigns across the country. Nothing in the Special Exemptions Act does anything about even these disclosure issues, yet these groups stand to become more powerful under the Act.

The campaign behind the Special Exemptions Act likes to talk about how they are going to change California’s political finance scheme. Yet real reformers are opposing the measure. Don’t let your friends get fooled by their slick positioning, the Special Exemptions Act will take California and our campaign finance system in exactly the wrong direction. In the direction favored by the Tea Party and their supporters.

In other words, the Special Exemptions Act is wrong for California.

If you haven’t joined the campaign online yet, please take a moment to get connected now. We also need your help on social media to show the strong opposition to this cynical ploy. Please like the campaign on facebook or follow on twitter.  

The Special Exemptions Act would make it even easier for Super PACs to buy our elections.

by Brian Leubitz (Note: I work for the Stop Special Exemptions Campaign. Cross-posted to DailyKos)

In 1980, Ronald Reagan spent $29.2mil to win the presidency. The incumbent, Jimmy Carter, spent $29.4mil to lose it.

In 2012, with the nominating convention still two months away, Sheldon Adelson, a casino magnate with ambiguous goals has committed, so far, over $35mil to ensure that his voice is millions of times larger than any single everyday voter. Just a few days ago, Adelson committed another $10mil at the Koch Brothers luxury convention. No matter how committed the volunteer, no matter how many phone calls they make, no matter how many doors they knock, no single volunteer will ever approach the impact that Sheldon Adelson will have simply by writing a check.

And, with a net worth somewhere in the $25 billion range, it is chump change to Adelson. For comparison’s sake, it’s like you giving a political candidate a hundred dollars. Maybe he’ll notice a small dip in his bank account, but it won’t affect him. And so, the Super PAC Billionaires get to exert massive influence on our elections.

And yet here in California, the Special Exemptions Act would grant these same Super PAC Billionaires a big ol’ pat on the back. The measure crafts out exemptions for some of the biggest businesses and campaign spenders. The measure purports to be an even-handed reform, but instead it protects one side from any change of their big spending ways.

This measure is just far too risky for California. Who knows what kind of disastrous results it could bring? Resurgent anti-environmentalists with corporate polluter money? Anti-public education with for-profit education money? In the end, the Special Exemptions Act would give them a huge leg up in elections, and in the Legislature. You don’t need a crystal ball to see that their real agenda goes far beyond November.

California doesn’t need to protect the Super PAC Billionaires. People like Sheldon Adelson are doing quite alright on their own.  If you haven’t joined the campaign on social media, please take a moment to get connected now: join the campaign today. You can also like the campaign on facebook or follow on twitter.

Initiative would do nothing about SuperPAC insanity.

by Brian Leubitz (Note: I work for the Stop Special Exemptions Campaign. Cross-posted to DailyKos)

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve seen the outrageous levels of spending on campaigns this cycle. What’s more, the SuperPac Billionaires are apparently willing to go to unprecedented lengths to get their cronies elected.

It doesn’t take much to realize just what Citizens United and the associated fallout has meant for our elections. Individual Billionaires are giving unprecedented sums to SuperPACs to get their way. Sheldon Adelson, a gambling magnate, is just one example, but his $10mil to a Romney SuperPAC means that his voice will be far larger than any of us can afford. In other words, our elections are now a free for all for those that can afford to spend millions on a campaign. And much of it is done through “non-profits” that don’t even disclose their donors.

The Special Exemptions Act will only make this worse here in California. It will act like miracle grow for the outrageous growth of campaign spending. Rather than being a balanced approach to campaign finance reform, it leaves loopholes for the SuperPAC Billionaires to drive their armored trucks through. Here are just a few of my favorite Special Exemptions:  Sole proprietorships, Real Estate Investment Trusts, LLCs, and  LLPs. And there are many more, just waiting for “investment.”

All this means that the voice of the wealthy would be even more disproportionate to everyday Californians. The Special Exemptions Act tries to pretend that it is Roundup for our campaigns, but in reality, it’s just Miracle Grow for the out of control campaign spending. That’s the last thing we need.

If you would like more information about the Special Exemptions Act, you can join the campaign today. You can also like the campaign on facebook or follow on twitter.