Deep-pocketed special interests may be in a position to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in the 2012 election without disclosing the sources of their funding, thanks to a divided Federal Election Commission (FEC) that can’t get past partisan differences.

 

The FEC’s three Democratic commissioners want full disclosure of who’s behind so-called independent expenditure campaigns run by corporations, unions and wealthy individuals. But the agency’s three Republican appointees are opposed to publicizing donors.

 

Democrats on the commission insist their position is supported by the U.S. Supreme Court, which last year upheld existing law requiring all contributors who give $1,000 or more to report their identities to the FEC. That decision came as part of the landmark Citizens United ruling that also removed federal campaign spending limits on corporations and unions.

 

In 2010, independent groups allocated $294 million for campaign ads. This amount represented a four-fold increase over what was spent in 2006.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Secret Campaign Ad Financing in Offing as FEC Is Deadlocked (by David G. Savage and Kim Geiger, Los Angeles Times)