The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for March 22, 2023
Today’s Links
Articles & Resources:
The New Yorker – A Rare Win in the Fight Against Dark Money
Arizona Mirror – Claiming a First Amendment right to anonymity, lawsuit aims to strike down ‘dark money’ prop
AZ Central – (Op-ed) Dark money groups now fighting Arizona’s new disclosure law. Shocker.
Open Secrets – ‘Dark money’ groups aligned with party leadership steer hundreds of millions of dollars into 2022 federal elections
Open Secrets – Reports on Americans for Prosperity
Brennan Center for Justice – Explainer on Dark Money
Groups Taking Action
Voters Right to Know, Stop Dark Money, Issue One, Campaign Legal Center,
Today’s Script: (Variations occur with audio due to editing for time)
Remember last fall when Arizona voters approved a citizen ballot initiative requiring disclosure of donors to Dark Money groups? The granddaddy of Dark Money groups is now suing to overturn it: Americans for Prosperity.
The Proposition 211 Voters’ Right to Know Act made it to the ballot last November, and 72% of the Arizona voters approved it. It requires any person or entity spending $50,000 or more on a statewide campaign, or $25,000 on a local campaign, to disclose any original donor source over $5,000 dollars.
The Arizona Mirror reports that groups opposed to the measure, the Arizona Free Enterprise Club and the Center for Arizona Policy, filed a state suit in December, claiming it, quote, “… violates Arizonans’ right to speak freely by chilling donors from supporting causes they believe in and wish to support, lest their charitable giving become public knowledge.”
Last week, the granddaddy of Dark Money, the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity, filed a lawsuit of its own, this time a federal lawsuit, claiming that Prop 211 violates the First Amendment right to free speech by disclosing contributions made by donors to nonprofits.
Dark Money entities include 501c nonprofits and Limited Liability Corporations, and OpenSecrets.org estimates $295 Million dollars was spent by these groups influencing the 2022 midterms – that we know of.
We have articles and groups taking action at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org, I’m Brian Beihl.
Remember to Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
#Democracy #DemocracyNews