The New York Times today anticipates a ruling "within days" from the Supreme Court opening the floodgates to corporate spending on election campaigns. The Times report points to lower court decisions.
Even before a landmark Supreme Court ruling on campaign finance law expected within days, a series of other court decisions is reshaping the political battlefield by freeing corporations, unions and other interest groups from many of the restrictions on their advertising about issues and candidates.
Legal experts and political operatives say the cases roll back campaign spending rules to the years before Watergate. The end of decades-old restrictions could unleash a torrent of negative advertisements, help cash-poor Republicans in a pivotal year and push President Obama to bring in more money for his party.
If the Supreme Court, as widely expected, rules against core elements of the existing limits, Democrats say they will try to enact new laws to reinstate the restrictions in time for the midterm elections in November. And advocates of stricter campaign finance laws say they hope the developments will prod the president to fulfill a campaign promise to update the presidential campaign financing system, even though it would diminish his edge as incumbent. ...
... Even if the court rules more narrowly, legal experts and political advocates say that the 2010 elections will bring the first large-scale application of previous court decisions that have all but stripped away those restrictions. Though the rulings have not challenged the bans on direct corporate contributions to parties and candidates, political operatives say that as a practical matter the rulings and a deadlock at the Federal Election Commission have already opened wide latitude for independent groups to advocate for and against candidates.
Business groups, expecting a wider, more favorable outcome in the Citizens United case, are already ramping up efforts to pour money into the November elections.
“It will be no holds barred when it comes to independent expenditures,” said Kenneth A. Gross, a veteran political law expert at the firm of Skadden Arps in Washington.
Labor and other interest groups also plan to use the expected rule change to enhance their influence but, of course, they don't have the scale of funding that's available to corporate America.
It seems unimaginable that individuals on the Democratic side will have the resources they poured into the Obama race, particularly given the recession.
However, Democrats begin with an advantage. They are ahead to date with "a total of $396.5 million for the midterms, with $50 million on hand and $10 million debts in public filings released this week. At the same time, "Republicans had raised just $204.7 million, with about $30 million on hand and about $6 million in debts, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics."
