Udall Backing Bill Targeting Super PACS

WASHINGTON — Sen. Tom Udall signed onto legislation Wednesday that would place new restrictions on so-called super PACS and other groups pouring big money into federal elections.

Udall, a New Mexico Democrat, has sounded alarms about the effects of the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling for months. The bill, introduced Wednesday and sponsored by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Udall and 32 other Democratic senators, is an attempt to blunt the effect of that court ruling in the 2012 elections.

The bill has no Republican co-sponsors. It’s not clear whether it will get one. Some Republicans, including Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, have publicly denounced the super PACS.

The bill would force political action committees spending more than $10,000 in a 24-hour period to disclose the expenditures and the donors. The bill also contains transfer provisions to prevent the actual sources of funds from being obscured by third-party groups.

Udall said Citizens United has transformed elections into “auctions.”

“The super PACS have grown dramatically,” Udall told a news conference in the U.S. Capitol today. “It looks to me like the result in the Republican primary is the guy with the biggest checkbook is the one that wins. We’ve turned our system from a marketplace of ideas … we’re now in an auction situation, in my mind.”

The Citizens United ruling, handed down by the high court two years ago, allows corporations and unions to spend as much as they like to support or attack candidates in elections. Super PACS have already spent millions in the 2012 Republican presidential primary race.

Senate Democrats proposed similar legislation known as the Disclose Act in 2010, but it was killed by Republicans.
— This article appeared on page C1 of the Albuquerque Journal