For the Democrats to win back control of Congress in November, they’ll have to win GOP seats in the so-called “red states”— the ones that reliably send Republicans to the House and Senate. To do so, they’re relying on tactics that include deception and dark money, things they usually attack the Republicans over with great vigor when they employ them. As in Nebraska, where, as election analyst Jim Ellis described it, Democratic leaders were able “to persuade their U.S.
Senate nominee to withdraw so the party could consolidate behind a stronger Independent candidate.” In most parts of the state, as in places like Idaho and South Dakota, where the tactic has also been employed successfully, the national Democratic agenda has discredited the local party. Relying on so-called independents as their standard-bearers allows candidates like Dan Osborne, who’s running against incumbent GOP Sen. Pete Ricketts, to make the race competitive, especially now that a near-plurality of voters call themselves “Independents.” Most of what Osborn believes still tracks with the views of the national Democrats he would caucus with if elected.
He is running as an independent because it improves his odds, not because he has broken with the party. Even more pernicious is the sudden appreciation shown by Democrats like Denise Powell, the nominee in Nebraska’s 2nd District, for what’s known as “dark money.” Powell has benefited from it, even though her campaign website says she wants to go to Congress to “overturn Citizens United and get dark money out of politics once and for all.” Here’s how it helped her. She started the campaign for the Democratic nomination a distant third in the polls.
The front-runner was state Senator John Cavanaugh, who expected to win easily. Then the Super PACs and advocacy groups who do not have to disclose their donors got involved, spending nearly $6 million on a television blitz promoting her. A group called Fight for Nebraska PAC, funded in part by groups like The Bench and Way Back PAC, spent more than $1.8 million on the race, but, critically, doesn’t have to disclose where those organizations got their money.
Western Futures Fund, an advocacy group that doesn’t disclose its donors, also got involved. Ultimately, Powell won by less than 2,000 votes, making it hard to argue that dark money didn’t make the difference. As she said after winning, it “doesn’t hurt to have your face blasted all over TV a million times a day” regardless of who paid for the ads.
Accepting that help as she did sits between contradiction and hypocrisy. She won on anonymous money. Yet, under the system Powell says she wants, the groups that made her the nominee could not have done what they did, and Cavanaugh would likely have won.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
