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Public Citizen addresses Citizens United
Letter to the Editor
By Jonah Minkoff-Zern
On November 14, 2012
In the wake of the most expensive election cycle in this country's history, Public
Citizen's "Democracy in Motion" tour is coming to Buffalo to mobilize people to support
two measures designed to get money out and voters in: the state Fair Elections Act
and a constitutional amendment to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United
v. Federal Election Commission ruling. The six-city tour includes stops in Albany,
Syracuse, Fairport, Buffalo, Ithaca and New York City. The goal is to mobilize citizens to
take action against the corporate takeover of elections by urging state lawmakers to pass
the 2012 Fair Elections Act (A.09885/S.7036) and support a constitutional amendment to
overturn the Citizens United ruling. Speakers will urge local activists to organize protests
surrounding the third anniversary of Citizens United in January, build local efforts to
create change, and support the passage of the Fair Elections Act, which may come to a
vote as soon as late November.
Citizens United allowed corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence
elections. As a result, corporations and wealthy individuals funneled huge sums of money
to super PACs, trade associations and other groups - many of which hide the identities
of their donors - to buy ads in this year's elections. In the wake of Citizens United,
more than $1.1 billion has been spent by outside groups in the 2012 federal elections.
More than $100,000,000 was spent by investment banks, insurance companies, financial
institutions and other big industries to influence the outcomes of New York's elections,
largely through negative attack ads.
In the short term, the Fair Elections Act would mitigate the damage of the Citizens United
ruling by allowing candidates to choose a public financing option, similar to one being
used in New York City, that would match small individual contributions and allow
publicly supported candidates to compete with those whose campaigns are paid for by
corporate contributions. To address the ruling in the long term, a nationwide movement is
growing for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United, take democracy off
the auction block and preserve constitutional rights for people - not corporations.
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