"Our Elections Are Being Poisoned"

[babylonsister]

"Our Elections Are Being Poisoned"
Have the dark money, front groups, and corporate cash flooding Scott Walker's recall corrupted the state of Wisconsin?

—By Andy Kroll
| Fri Jun. 1, 2012 3:00 AM PDT


Wisconsin's June 5 recall election is a national battle on a statewide stage, a proxy war pitting Democrats against Republicans, liberals against conservatives, unions against big business. The man tracking the tens of millions of dollars being spent to win that war is Mike McCabe, Wisconsin's political money guru, who runs the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign out of nondescript office blocks away from the state capitol in Madison.

McCabe has watched the political money wars in Wisconsin for decades, but in recent years, he's seen state records fall like dominoes: $20 million spent on 2008 legislative races, $37 million on the 2010 gubernatorial race, and $44 million on last September's nine state Senate recall elections. That $44 million more than doubled the previous record of $20.25 million spent in 2008 on 109 separate legislative races.

The money contest was ramping up even before Gov. Scott Walker's recall battle. But now political spending has exploded in Wisconsin. McCabe predicts as much as $80 million will be spent on next week's recall. Along with Walker and his opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, the spending will come from political parties, labor unions, corporations, billionaire business titans, shadowy interest groups, and more. Many Wisconsin citizens have donated to both sides of the recall fight, but contributors from across the country have also invested huge sums in the outcome of the race. And the provenance of millions more in campaign cash entering Wisconsin's political bloodstream is unknown, funnelled through nonprofit entities that are not required to disclose their contributors.

The deluge is unlike anything in Wisconsin's 164-year history. It's also a case study of all the ways deep-pocketed national groups can flood a single state with political money in the post-Citizens United era. McCabe, a critic of Walker's, says he fears for the recall election's long-term impact on his state. "Our elections are being poisoned," he says. "It is increasingly difficult to see who is actually supplying all of this money, who is paying for the poison."

more...

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/05/wisconsin-recall-walker-barrett-dark-money

[skepticscott]

1. And what is that money being spent on

that is radically different than in the past?