The supreme court recently ruled that it was unconstitutional to put restrictions on the amount of money entities could give to political donations, effectively giving big corporations and wealthy donors the right to spend as much as they like to elect candidates. The money can't go directly to the candidates coffers, but through super PAC's, people such as the Koch Brothers and George Soros can spend unlimited amounts. Immediately, Democrats began a campaign against one particular entity, the Koch Brothers. At first I was curious because of all the talk, how much did the Koch Brothers give to conservative causes? I thought surely it must be the largest amount of all donors, and not by a small margin. I was very wrong. The Koch Brothers are not even in the top 50 according to opensecrets.org. The top 10 donors are all primarily Democrat donors with the exception of National Board of Realtors that is effectively split between the parties. Tom Steyer, the City of New York, Democrat Governors Association, and National Education Association are the top four donors and all of them are strongly democratic. The Republican Governors Association at eleven is the first truly GOP donor.
This calls into question why Senator Reid and other Democrats are so strongly pushing against the Koch Brothers. Is it because they want to draw attention away from their own financial masters? Or is it because they feel that a corporation should not have the same rights as a union for example? To me it seems like nothing more than smoke and mirrors, trying to draw the attention of America to the Koch Brothers and away from the many issues they face in this coming election. The democrats are in trouble this midterm, and they are desperately trying to control the losses that some are expecting in November.
http://www.opensecrets.org/overview/topcontribs.php
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/03/us/politics/supreme-court-ruling-on-campaign-contributions.html
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