'People Power' Defeated The Plutocrats (This Time)

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

In the first presidential election of unlimited campaign contributions and undisclosed donors in the Citizens United era, "People Power" defeated the plutocrats, or the "47 percent" defeated the "one percent." This time.

The plutocrats will do what they always do. Next time they will throw more money at their objective of overwhelming the political process until they finally get what they want -- destroying democracy. And that is why we need a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and its "corporations are people" and "money is speech" intellectual nonsense. Big spending yields little result for GOP:

Record spending by independent groups largely defined how the 2012 elections were fought, but the money had no dis­cern­ible impact on the outcome of most contests, according to an early analysis of ballot results and expenditures by The Washington Post.

A clutch of conservative billionaires and privately held corporations fueled nearly $1 billion in spending by super PACs and nonprofit groups this cycle, unleashing a wave of attack ads unrivaled in U.S. history. Yet Republican groups and their donors failed to achieve their two overarching goals--to unseat President Obama and return the U.S. Senate to the control of the GOP.

In the Senate, Republicans lost ground, pouring well over $100 million in outside money into a half-dozen seats that went to Democrats. In the presidential race, GOP nominee Mitt Romney and his allies spent more than twice as much as John McCain in 2008, but only took back red-leaning Indiana and North Carolina for their trouble.

Even in the House, where last-minute surges of cash would seem to stand a good chance of swinging races, GOP money groups struck out repeatedly, according to the Post analysis. In 26 of the most competitive House races, Democratic candidates and their allies were outspent in the final months of the race but pulled out a victory anyway. That compares to 11 competitive races where Republicans were outspent and won.

Outside money was the dog that barked but did not bite.

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“Its lasting impact will be that it fueled the public’s disgust about politics,” said David Donnelly of the Public Campaign Action Fund, which favors stricter campaign-finance regulations.

On election day, Montana voters approved an initiative, I-66, that had 75 percent approval with about half the vote counted.  Montana voters approve ballot questions:

[It] creates a state policy that corporations are not people entitled to constitutional rights, and direct Montana's congressional delegation to introduce a constitutional amendment establishing that.

The initiative got on the ballot amid the backlash to the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision that ruled a ban on corporate spending in federal elections was a restriction of free speech.

The Attorney General of Montana who defended Montana's ban on corporate money in politics before the U.S. Supreme Court, Steve Bullock, was elected Governor of Montana. Bullock defeats Hill in Montana governor race.