Shadowy outside group spending $1.5 million to influence Arkansas Dem primary

It's worth stepping back and marveling at what's happening in Arkansas. A shadowy third-party group that's said to be backed by business interests -- nobody knows for sure -- is spending roughly $1.5 million to defeat Blanche Lincoln's primary foe, Bill Halter.

And they don't have to reveal where any of that cash came from. That's not a shocker, of course, to those who follow this stuff very closely. But it's extraordinary nonetheless.

The group, Americans for Job Security, has already gotten a ton of press for their ad featuring residents of India speaking in heavy accents as they thank Halter for exporting jobs to their country. Halter has denied that the company on whose board he served transfered any jobs overseas. But that spot reportedly is backed by a $1 million buy. So a lot of eyeballs are seeing it.
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Lincoln, for her part, has denounced the ads. But this group is spending a total of $1.5 million, and perhaps more, to defeat Halter -- which will go a long way in Arkansas. To put that sum in perspective, consider that it's nearly three times the roughly $550,000 that the Halter campaign has on hand right now.

The group confirmed to me that it won't be revealing its funders, arguing that it's a 501c6 trade association that isn't required by law to do so. Of course, this could eventually change. Groups like this will be forced to reveal their funders if the new legislation being contemplated by Dems in response to Citizens United ever become law. But that won't happen in the immediate future, obviously.

Again, it's easy to get jaded about this kind of thing. Yet we shouldn't. It's not out of the realm of possibility that this group's spending could help decide this Senate primary -- without us ever knowing where the money came from, or who the group is even pulling for. That's a pretty big deal.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/05/shadowy_outside_group_spending.html

I hope he stomps her!

It's patently unfair for anyone living outside the specific state, to tweak funding of candidates so they have undue influence over who represents that state.

Each senator/congressperson has a share of whatever legislative actions are taken (that affect ALL of us), and it sure would be nice to know that the candidates sent to represent a state , are truly representative of ONLY the people from those states/districts.

The "New" Democrats? Green party? Somebody should consider adopting the following platform...


1. America has been highjacked by special interests, corporations having "free speech" rights, etc.

2. We can take America back, without bloodshed or great human suffering simply by applying the Constitution.

3. Our candidates will take an Oath that a) we'll ban "corporate free speech" and b) we'll pass term limit and other anti-corruption legislation to hold future elected officials accountable.