CAMPUS HIGHLIGHT…MONEY ON MY MIND…NY FAIR ELECTIONS ACTIVISM…STUDENT DEBT…VOTERS BELIEVE MONEY IS CORRUPTING…FACTS YOU CAN USE…ELECTION CARTOONS
CAMPUS HIGHLIGHT: MARSHALL UNIVERSITY
Savannah Keller and her Democracy Matters members at Marshall University in West Virginia have been very active this Fall, raising awareness with flyer and poster campaigns as well as tabling, chalking, and class raps. DM at Marshall organized a campus voter registration campaign, and sponsored a screening of Pricele$$ – a fantastic documentary exploring where the big money in politics comes from and what it buys.
The chapter also sponsored screenings of the Presidential debates, with students meeting ahead of time to discuss what issues were most important to them. They found in most cases that the topics most important to students – student loans, the rising cost of college, the environment, income inequality – were hardly mentioned or totally ignored during the debates. In the coming months, Democracy Matters at Marshall will be doing more educational outreach and actions to address these critical issues and their links to money in politics.
MONEY ON MY MIND
In this month’s column, Jay Mandle argues that – whatever the outcome on November 6th – “the clear loser will be political equality.” He explains that three unprecedented developments – the nearly $6 billion in political money contributed largely by big donors; the attacks on voting rights; and the undisclosed “independent” political spending – have empowered wealthy special interests at the expense of everyone else.
Read the full article and explore other issues of MOMM.
NEW YORK FAIR ELECTIONS ACTIVISM
A “Caravan of Corruption” created by Citizen Action of NY toured New York State last week. It highlighted the need for Fair Elections to counter the big money corruption of state representatives. At the Caravan stop in Binghamton, Toni Bruno of Binghamton University Democracy Matters spoke. And in Utica, Colgate University DMer David Butler emphasized the importance to students of Fair Elections – public campaign finance reform. The tour – with its life-sized cut outs of jailed former elected officials – was a great way to spread the word about the fight for Fair Elections that is heating up in New York State.
STUDENT DEBT – A POLITICAL CRISIS
- The cost of a college degree has increased over 1,000 percent since the 1990’s.
- Two-thirds of students are graduating from 4 year colleges with $25,000+ in debt.
- U.S. student debt now exceeds $1 Trillion.
- 81% of Black students, 67% of Hispanic students, and 65% of white students borrow to fund their education.
Drastic cuts by politicians of the funding for higher education is the single most important source of this problem. As recently as 2000, public colleges and universities received more than 70% of their budgets from public funding. But by 2011 that percentage had dropped 13 points to 57%. In many states the decline in support for higher education over the last decade was even steeper. California’s system of higher education – once seen as one of the best in the country – is trying to cope with a 27% decrease in funding, while in Arizona public funding for higher education has dropped by 25%. These facts are part of a new report just released by the Center for American Progress.
To many observers, the de-funding of colleges and universities represents an educational crisis. But the fact is that it’s political. Student voices, as well as those of graduates struggling to pay back student loans, simply are ignored because they can not make big contributions to political campaigns. Our “pay-to-play” system of campaign funding has made it harder to get an education while threatening the quality of higher education.
Read the full Student Debt report.
See also: The Center’s excellent report on Judicial Campaign Funding.
VOTERS BELIEVE MONEY IS CORRUPTING
During this partisan season, concern about money-in-politics is one issue that crosses party lines. A new poll of voters in 54 battleground Congressional districts held by Republicans demonstrated that – across all parties and demographic groups – voters are intensely concerned about the corruption of our democracy by big donations.
Two-thirds of respondents said that democracy is undermined when secret money and big donors decide which candidates we hear about. By more than a two-to-one margin, these voters also worried about the corrupting quid pro quo involved with big campaign donations to Super-Pacs. And finally, the poll found that more than half of respondents favored replacing large political donations with public campaign funding and small donations.
The desire to get big money out of politics was pervasive. A full 87% of senior citizens, 78% of independent voters, 70% of Republicans, and 85% of Democrats, as well as 77% of suburban residents all reported that it was important to them that their candidates come up with a plan to reduce the amount of money in politics and SuperPacs.
The poll was conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner. Read the entire report.
FACTS YOU CAN USE: THE OUTSIDE “SHADOW” MONEY
According to The Center for Responsive Politics, outside political spending – $1 billion as of October 25th – has already eclipsed the amount of such money spent in all elections since 1990 combined. And a big part of that total is political spending by groups that do not disclose their donors – so-called “shadow” money.
Though they are trying to hide their identity, we do know some things about them:
- Fourteen times as much shadow money has been spent to oppose Obama than to attack Romney.
- Eight times more shadow money has been spent to support Romney than Obama.
- Shadow money has been in play in 100 Congressional races since September.
- The top 20 shadow money groups have spent $142 million to target 10 candidates; 91% of the total was spent by conservative groups.
- Specific examples:
1. The New American Energy Opportunity Foundation, a 501(c)(4) group, disclosed that the $800,000 funder of a series of radio commercials was Sheldon Adelson (Note: The Adelson couple famously gave over $15 million to a Super Pac (disclosed) to support Newt Gingrich in the Republican primary). Energy Opportunity’s main issue is reducing restrictions on drilling for gas and oil in the United States. Their video attacks Obama for “putting drastic restrictions on our oil and natural gas development.”
2. The Patriot Majority is a liberal group that previously disclosed its donors but since last year has joined the ranks of “shadow” money. In August it spent $500,000 to run ads attacking what it calls the conservative “Greed Agenda.” In the ad, the narrator warns that “Billionaire oil tycoons Charles and David Koch and their special interest friends are spending $400 million to buy this year’s elections and advance their agenda!”
For more information on outside and shadow money see: www.opensecrets.org.
Enjoy these election-inspired cartoons from the Friends of Democracy Facebook page:
