DISCLOSE!

Lucas,

"Independent expenditures."

That's the Washington, D.C., inside-the-Beltway term for money that corporations, billionaires and pretty much anything or anyone who isn't a candidate is throwing toward tilting elections one way or another.

Many of these "independent expenditures" will be secretly funneled into front groups that blast our airwaves with smears, half-truths and outright lies.

Meanwhile, the big spenders behind the big money are doing all they can to keep their spending in the dark. This July 4, stand up for true independence by urging your senators to fight for an election season that's independent of secret money. Tell them to cosponsor the DISCLOSE Act.

For more information about the DISCLOSE Act, read my earlier email, copied below in case you missed it.

Thanks,

Rick

Lucas,

A politician who supported transparency of money in politics once said:

"Public disclosure of campaign contributions and spending should be expedited so voters can judge for themselves what is appropriate."

In other words, if a group is trying to influence your vote, then you should know who is paying it to do so.

That is the commonsense principle behind the DISCLOSE Act (S. 2219, H.R. 4010)　-- a bill to require that the identities of those who fund political ads be disclosed to the public, regardless of whether that funding comes from corporations, labor unions, or millionaires and billionaires.

Tell your senators to support the DISCLOSE Act.

Now here's the twist: The author of the above quote wasn't the lead sponsor of the DISCLOSE Act. It was Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in 1997 (1) -- long before the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling opened the floodgates to unlimited secret corporate and special-interest money in elections.

Recently, the same Sen. McConnell, who 15 years ago publicly proclaimed his support for transparency of money in politics, declared war on transparency.

In a speech before the right-wing American Enterprise Institute, McConnell blasted the DISCLOSE Act -- a bill to enact reforms he once embraced -- as "Nixonian," calling it an "effort to limit speech" while dismissing transparency as a mere means to "harass and silence critics." (2)

What changed?

It's worth repeating: Citizens United opened the floodgates to unlimited secret corporate and special interest money in elections.

McConnell says he's defending free speech. In reality, he's just defending the flood of secret money that he thinks gives corporate-sponsored candidates an edge in this year's elections.

In fact, McConnell's shift against transparency is so extreme, it even contradicts the Supreme Court, which ruled 8 to 1 IN FAVOR of disclosure, even as it absurdly proclaimed in Citizens United that corporate spending in politics is the same thing as real speech by real people.

We've defeated this kind of anti-transparency hypocrisy before. (3)

Help us defeat it again.

Make sure your senators know you support the DISCLOSE Act.