All elections should be publicly funded; that’s the Joe Biden way – but is it, really? Early in his brief remarks on Sept. 20 supporting the DISCLOSE Act, the president said: “I’ve proposed much earlier on that we should just publicly fund all of our elections, but I’m not – I just don’t have the support for that position.” This came right after he called dark money a “serious problem facing our democracy,” and went on to introduce “a second position that is very good.” Enter Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s (D-RI) bill against dark money and foreign campaign contributions. But looking at the commander-in-chief’s own campaign finances raises a pertinent question: Could he ever have taken the White House without generous helpings of both?
Casting Light
The Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections (DISCLOSE) Act, introduced year-after-year by Whitehouse, will be considered by the Senate, most likely some time later this week. The bill seeks to close loopholes allowing foreign nationals and businesses to participate in election-related activities and to force all contributions over $10,000 to be reported to the Federal Election Commission. It also aims to tighten up campaign ad disclosures, and Title III, the “Stand by Every Ad Act,” would require each advertisement to clearly state whether the candidate endorses it and include either a “Top Five Funders list” (for video), “Top Two Funders list” (for audio), or – if the ad is too short to make that practical – at least a hyperlink to a website that maintains such a list.
The House passed this legislation as part of its larger “voting rights” package in January, but the bill died in the Senate under Republican opposition. Now Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is scheduling a vote on just the DISCLOSE Act this week. It doesn’t seem the bill has enough Republican support to overcome the filibuster, however, meaning it is most likely DOA.
(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
But nothing is certain; this bill ostensibly focusing on transparency could gain bipartisan support before the final vote. It also could inspire yet another attempt to end the filibuster – and one must wonder how many bills Democrats believe Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) are willing to watch wither on the vine before they agree that it’s time to change the rules.
Dark Money Democrats
“There’s much too much money that flows in the shadows to influence our elections,” Biden said in his remarks. “I believe sunlight is the best disinfectant,” he added as he called on Republicans to join Democrats in supporting the bill. Both the elections of 2016 and 2020, of course, were hotly contested, and the role of anonymous corporate contributions and foreign funding featured prominently in the arguments that ensued. The president and his fellow Democrats haven’t passed up the opportunities to virtue signal about transparency, public trust, and the apparent willingness of Republicans to take the money, no matter the source.
Image provided by OpenSecrets.org
But Joe Biden is no more a stranger to dark money – or foreign contributions, for that matter – than the dreaded Donald. Bloomberg reported in January of 2021 that anonymous corporate donors gave $145 million to pro-Biden groups, an amount the outlet calls “record-breaking.” In addition, foreign lobbyists provided about $125,000 to the Biden campaign, according to an August 2021 report from The Hill citing Open Secrets’ data. One might wonder how the life-long Swamp dweller would have fared that year had it not been for the benefit of what he openly calls “a serious problem facing our democracy.”
Why stop there? In his opening lines, the president talked about how he wants to see publicly funded elections free of other contributions. Biden’s campaign and outside groups raised over $1.6 billion for his 2020 presidential election, and Open Secrets tallies his career fundraising as a senator at just over $1 billion. Trump received dark money contributions and foreign funding too, but Joe Biden did it bigger. Most politicians, Republican or Democrat, rely on public donations – dark, foreign, or otherwise – and the most recent two presidents are not exceptions. But the records show that Biden trumped them all. In the words of Whitehouse: “Nobody who defends this rotten stuff should get off the hook.”
