Dark money exposed

On September 18, the Supreme Court refused to stop a ruling by a lower court on a lawsuit brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which was to reveal the sources of the legal bribery money special interests pay our representatives to usurp the will of the people.

What that means is, nonprofits that donate to super PACs that do things like support advertising for or against a political candidate, have to disclose the names of those who donate more than $200 for furthering an independent expenditure to the Federal Election Commission. This is an incredibly important ruling, because we can now see where previously hidden dark money comes from and the agenda it is trying to purchase with that money.

Citizens United has been a fatal cancer upon our democracy, so now we should get to see who Cathy McMorris Rodgers actually works for and I’ll bet she doesn’t like that prospect. I would think that it is incumbent upon publications like The Spokesman-Review to look at these sources as part of the reporting it does on our elections, and convey what they find to the public. Isn’t that a function of journalism?

David Cannon

Spokane