This Week in Politics: Ten Years After Citizens United
This month marks a decade since the Supreme Court ruled that corporations and other outside groups could not be restricted from spending money on elections. It led to the growth of super PACs and changed the way campaigns were funded in America.
New analysis of the Citizens United decision by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU, finds that even though some candidates talk a lot about the power of small donors - and have sworn off PAC money - the mega-donor is more powerful than ever. The center calculates that super PACs have spent almost $3 billion on federal elections in the decade since their creation.
Ian Vandewalker, senior counsel for the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center joins us to talk about the analysis.
Speaking with David Furst, Ian says, "It's true, there are going to be a lot of small donations in 2020… but what we see is across the entire system – all the money going into federal elections – millions and millions of small donors just can't keep up with the few megadonors who can give in massive amounts that are sort of unimaginable to regular people."
