Lucas,
According to a popular slogan, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
If only.
For one of his first assignments, newly chosen Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan was dispatched to Las Vegas, Nevada -- a.k.a. Sin City -- to hobnob with billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and other really rich people.
Adelson, you may recall, has pledged to spend as much as $100 million of his own fortune trying to get pro-corporate, anti-progress candidates elected this fall.
By the way, I know $100 million sounds like a jackpot. But with his current estimated net worth of $24.9 billion, Adelson could drop $100 million on the presidential election every four years FOR THE NEXT MILLENNIUM.
And he's just one of the many modern-day moguls who can and will spend whatever they want contorting the world into their own twisted fantasyland.
Their deviousness is definitely not confined to Las Vegas.
By some estimates, total spending on elections this year could exceed $10 billion.
It's mind-boggling.
And it's just blood in the water for the sharks of greed if we don't do everything we possibly can to stop it.
Fortunately for our country and our democracy, people like you, as part of organizations like Public Citizen, are fighting back.
Together, we are making impressive progress in our campaign for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission -- the insane Supreme Court ruling that is the reason aspiring oligarchs like Sheldon Adelson, along with corporate "citizens" like Koch Industries, ExxonMobil and JPMorgan Chase, can spend literally AS MUCH MONEY AS THEY WANT turning our democracy inside out.
- Seven states -- California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts New Mexico, Rhode Island and Vermont -- have so far called for an amendment. Thousands and thousands of Public Citizen activists helped make these campaigns successful.
- Public Citizen and allied organizations are advancing amendment resolutions or ballot initiatives in many other states, including Colorado, Montana and New Jersey.
- 96 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and 29 members of the U.S. Senate have formally endorsed an amendment -- many after hearing from Public Citizen's supporters and policy experts. We recently stepped up our campaign to build even more amendment momentum in Congress.
- Public Citizen and our organizational partners have helped advance resolutions in over 400 cities and towns throughout the country, with many more on the horizon.
And that's only a fraction of the work Public Citizen does to hold corporate power in check. All on a budget that is, I have to admit, minuscule when compared to what corporations and the hyper-wealthy are spending.
But that's okay.
We can't -- and don't want to -- fight fire with fire. We are efficient and shrewd enough that we don't need to match what someone like Sheldon Adelson is spending.
But we do operate in the real world, so we do need some modest resources to build more and more momentum in communities throughout the country, in Congress and in the media.
I'm counting on you to help out. Please contribute $3 or more -- whatever you can -- so that Public Citizen can keep fighting.
Today.
Tomorrow.
Until it's done.
Thank you for your support.
Sincerely,
Robert Weissman
President, Public Citizen