‘Dark Money’ in politics hardly a laughing matter

The weekend before the elections, the local Republican candidates held a “Rally to End Philadelphia Dark Money”. What a joke.

In case you don’t know, the term “Dark Money” refers to the expenditures made legal by the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United, which allows for expenditures by nonprofit organizations and anonymous corporate entities who are not required to reveal their donors. Neither campaigns nor candidates can control the flow of Dark Money – either in their favor or against their opponents.

It does not mean money coming from Philadelphia or – as candidate Tom McGarrigle stated at his recent forum – money coming from Eric Holder or Barack Obama.

If voters are actually concerned about the influence of money in politics, they should carefully scrutinize the money that flowed into the campaigns of local Republicans – particularly incumbent Republicans like Chris Quinn, Alex Charlton, Jamie Santora and Tom McGarrigle.

When asked at a recent forum, Mr. McGarrigle declined to state whether he accepted money from oil and gas companies – and laughingly stated that he “takes money from all different PACs …”

We don’t think the influence of money on politics is a laughing matter.

So for the record, Mr. McGarrigle did accept money from oil and gas PAC’s, their lawyers, and their contractors. But much of it is hard to trace, a common theme in Pennsylvania campaign finance.

Consider that Senator McGarrigle has received more than $10,000 from the “Pennsylvania Future Fund PAC.” Sounds innocent enough, until you dig into where they get their money. The bulk comes from construction firms, such as Toll Brothers, and other firms working on energy infrastructure. The rest comes from the “Excellent Schools” PAC, which in turn receives all of its funding from the “Students First” PAC. Students First PAC is funded entirely by Jeffrey Yass, Co-Founder of Susquehanna Investments, to the tune of more than $3 million this year alone.

Aside from funding Excellent Schools PAC, Students First made enormous contributions to the Republican Party – including $750,000 to another PAC, and a cool $1,000,000 to Scott Wagner. In other words, Mr. Yass – like many other big dollar donors – uses an innocent-sounding PAC to mask what are in reality direct contributions. Whatever his reasons, they do not serve the public’s interest in transparency.

The solution for Pennsylvania campaign finance reform rests with the Pennsylvania Legislature. And Mr. Quinn, Mr. McGarrigle, Mr. Charlton and Mr. Santora – along with their Republican majority – have done nothing to solve the problem.

For a reminder of the importance of the state Legislature’s role in this area, the Republicans should take a look at the excellent work done by the Brennan Center for Justice: “Inaction by Congress and the Federal Election Commission has shown that meaningful change is unlikely at the federal level. But there is plenty that could be done on the state and local levels, consistent with Supreme Court precedent. More comprehensive laws can help amplify the voices of everyday citizens, empower voters, and boost confidence in the system. They also can protect the integrity of our institutions by increasing transparency, stemming corruption and influxes of illegal foreign money.”

We need legislators who will take on these serious problems, not try to exploit them. And certainly not laugh about them. Email: Phone: Fax: