Money in American Politics

In 2014, the website The Hill reported on a study done by Martin Gilens and BenjaminPage, titled “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups and Average Citizens”. The Hill began its reporting with: “A shattering new study by two political science professors has found that ordinary Americans have virtually no impact whatsoever on the making of national policy in our country. The analysts found that rich individuals and business-controlled interest groups largely shape policy outcomes in the United States.”

I recently read Dark Money by Jane Mayer. Her book provides a very detailed picture of how a small number of wealthy individuals and families has gained undue influence over our political system and our election process.

When I began the book, I expected that it would mostly focus on Charles and David Koch (co-owners of Koch Industries) whose combined wealth is estimated to be over $80 billion. A Center for Responsive Politics report stated that in 2012 Koch PACs spent $4.9 million in disclosed contributions and $407 million in undisclosed contributions (dark money). But Mayer doesn’t focus only on the Kochs. Her book chronicles many other wealthy individuals, foundations and corporations that have used their enormous resources to influence American politics.

Although Mayer describes a number of wealthy individuals and groups that have exerted influence over the past 50 years, currently the most significant wealthy individuals who have exerted influence over the political process are Charles and David Koch. Let’s look at them first. In 1980, David Koch ran for Vice-President of the United States on the Libertarian ticket. The Libertarian platform called for abolition of the following: campaign finance laws, all government health care programs (including Medicaid and Medicare), Social Security, all income and corporate taxes (including capital gains tax), the Securities and Exchange Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, laws impeding employment (i.e., minimum wage and child labor laws), public schools and compulsory education of children, the Food and Drug Administration, the Occupation Safety and Health Administration, and all forms of welfare for the poor. The Libertarian slate got 1% of the popular vote that year. Despite the popularity of many of these ideas among some Republicans today, in 1980 they were far from the mainstream ideas of the Republican party.

After the resounding defeat of Libertarian Party ideas, David Koch and his older brother, Charles, decided that running for office was not an effective strategy. Instead they embarked on an effort to bring about support for the ideas behind the Libertarian Party’s platform. They did this by funding conservative think tanks (e.g., the Cato Institute and Heritage Foundation), which produced studies to support their ideas. These studies sometimes did not rely on scientific and factual evidence (e.g., denial of climate change). They funded programs in colleges and universities, that were designed to foster free-market and anti-regulatory economics (e.g., the Mercatus Center and Institute for Human Studies at George Mason University).

The Koch brothers influence in this process is due less to their own donations (though they are substantial) than to their coordination of the donations of a large group of wealthy individuals, foundations and corporations. To advance their agenda, the Koch brothers sponsor twice-yearly meetings with potential donors to their conservative causes. The first donor summit in 2003 was attended by only 15 people. But, after Barak Obama’s election in 2008, the summits began to attract many more wealthy donors. Because of the secrecy enforced by the Kochs, the names of people who attended these summits are mostly unknown. The secrecy of the summits reflects the secrecy of the Koch donor network and of donations made by the Koch brothers themselves. Many donations are made to organizations that do not have to reveal the source of the donations. These organizations then donate to other organizations that may have to disclose their donors; but the disclosure only reveals the name of the organization they received the donations from. The original donors' identities remain a secret.

In Dark Money, Mayer traces the influence of money on politics back to the Scaife Family Charitable Trust. Richard Scaife, whose money came from his mother, a member of the Mellon family, was the largest funder of the Heritage Foundation from 1975 to 1985. Mayer points out that, along with other wealthy individuals, Scaife was reacting to a situation many corporations found themselves in during the 1960’s and 1970’s, following the “birth of the environmental and consumer movements”. Later, Scaife also funded the launching of ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council), which has helped spread the conservative legislative agenda throughout state legislatures.

Mayer reports on many other wealthy individuals who have poured money into American politics. In many instances, it appears that their motivation is to influence the oversight of their business operations by the government and resulting fines. Mayer reports that the Olin Corporation was involved in controversial environmental practices involving the production of DDT and the dumping of mercury into the Niagra River in New York State. In an effort to influence government policies affecting corporations, the Olin Foundation funded the establishment of Law and Economics courses in law schools. These courses stressed “the need to analyze laws, including government regulations, not just for fairness but also for their economic impact.” The courses were a back-door way to get conservative principles into the law school curriculum. The Olin Foundation provided 83% of the funds to support this effort from 1985 to 1989.

Some of other examples Mayer describes include: the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, which drove the early “school choice” efforts; Randy Kendrick, who led the fight against Obamacare; the DeVos family (of Amway fame), which funded efforts to undo campaign finance laws; and Art Pope of North Carolina who, with $2.2 million spent on 2010 state races by his family and groups backed by him, helped turn North Carolina into a state dominated by the Republican party.

The influence of big money over our political system was given a big boost by the Supreme Court Citizens United decision in 2010. For the 2010 elections, Americans for Prosperity (a Koch brothers' organization) pledged to spend at least $200 million, American Crossroads (a Karl Rove group) $52 million and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce $75 million. The focus of this money is to influence politicians to look favorably on the interests of big business and limit the government oversight of companies and corporations that, for the most part, if left to their own devices, will put corporate profits over the welfare of the American people. What influence can the average American have, compared to wealthy individuals and large corporations? One answer, of course, is that we can have greater influence if we join together. Remember the large amount of money that Bernie Sanders was able to raise for his Presidential campaign, with an average donation of $27 from individual donors?

In Dark Money, Jane Mayer documents the influence of dark money and of wealthy individuals and corporations on our politics. She does not offer recommendations to resolve the decreasing influence of average Americans on government policies. But, her comprehensive description of the problem we average Americans face provides a valuable contribution to our knowledge of how much the deck is stacked against us.