{"id":46209,"date":"2014-11-03T08:12:37","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T15:12:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/03\/if-money-is-speech-its-clear-whos-dominating-the-conversation.html"},"modified":"2014-11-05T08:33:27","modified_gmt":"2014-11-05T15:33:27","slug":"if-money-is-speech-its-clear-whos-dominating-the-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/03\/if-money-is-speech-its-clear-whos-dominating-the-conversation.html","title":{"rendered":"If money is speech, it's clear who's dominating the conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just 42 donors are responsible for a third of all Super PAC contributions this year. All are older and white, and 35 of them are men.<\/p>\n

Does money determine elections? No, not in every case. But it sure doesn't hurt (as proof of which look at how much is spent and how much time and effort candidates put into pursuing it).<\/p>\n

Are all these "old white guys" pushing precisely the same ideology in their donations? Probably not, but I'll bet you it's a less diverse ideological spectrum than you'd get from a cross-section if the America public.<\/p>\n

Super PACs, by the way, are spending more this year than the political parties.<\/p>\n

Votes, of course, are the bottom line in the democracy, and money can't buy votes (yet). But money does help determine which people can even afford to get into the pool to compete, and it can help determine which of those candidates then get heard (and, thus, voted on). And, of course, as they say, he who pays the piper calls the tune.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\nWho’s Buying the Midterm Elections? A Bunch of Old White Guys<\/a><\/span>
\nForty-two people are responsible for nearly a third of Super PAC spending in the 2014 election cycle.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just 42 donors are responsible for a third of all Super PAC contributions this year. All are older and white, and 35 of them are men. Does money determine elections? No, not in every case. But it sure doesn't hurt (as proof of which look at how much is spent and how much time and … Continue reading “If money is speech, it's clear who's dominating the conversation”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,353,374],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-elections-2014","category-money-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":26063,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/04\/the-money-game-for-the-2012-elections.html","url_meta":{"origin":46209,"position":0},"title":"The Money Game for the 2012 Elections","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 4-Feb-12 9:34pm","format":false,"excerpt":"An interesting comparison, in a number of ways, between Obama and Romney's money-raising to date -- total numbers, timing, sources, all of it. Good stuff. #ddtb Embedded Link The 2012 Money Race: Compare the Candidates - Campaign Finance - Election 2012 - NYTimes.com Campaign Finance for the 2012 presidential election.","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26204,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/08\/best-elections-money-can-perhaps-buy-trying-to-save-scott-walker-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":46209,"position":1},"title":"Best elections money can (perhaps) buy: trying to save Scott Walker","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 8-Feb-12 5:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Right is pulling out the stops to defend Wisconsin's Scott Walker, starting off with a $700K ad buy from Koch Bros.-backed \"Americans for Prosperity Foundation\". #ddtb Embedded Link National Tea Party goes all in to save Scott Walker Right wing groups pour money into Wisconsin.","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29106,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/02\/big-money-no-whammies.html","url_meta":{"origin":46209,"position":2},"title":"Big money! No whammies!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 2-Aug-12 10:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Given the flood of corporate and individual and anonymous money into elections, it seems almost anticlimactic that what laws there are turn out to be easily flouted by those who choose to do so, with few if any repercussions. That's just ... discouraging. Embedded Link IRS: Toothless. FEC: \"Thoroughly Broken.\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50347,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/05\/easy-money-politics-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":46209,"position":3},"title":"Easy Money (Politics Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 5-May-15 1:31pm","format":false,"excerpt":"In case you were concerned that ANY campaign finance laws still existed, don't worry: nobody is likely to enforce them. As far as the GOP members of the Federal Elections Commission are concerned, their main job is to protect \"free speech,\" which means, of course, free spending. F.E.C. Can\u2019t Curb\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52018,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/01\/us-elections-show-me-the-money.html","url_meta":{"origin":46209,"position":4},"title":"US Elections: Show Me the Money","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 1-Aug-15 7:09pm","format":false,"excerpt":"As we start to watch the money rolling into the Presidential Election of 2016 ... the results are not encouraging except for the biggest-bucked of donors. (Emphasis mine):'The 67 biggest donors, each of whom gave $1 million or more, donated more than three times as much as the 508,000 smallest\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25704,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/24\/the-one-percent-of-the-one-percent.html","url_meta":{"origin":46209,"position":5},"title":"The One Percent of the One Percent","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 24-Jan-12 6:22pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The 0.01% of the population who ...... contributed a quarter of all the money spent in the 2010 elections. ... contributed to the 2010 elections on average more than the average American citizen makes in an entire year.... contribute 80% of the money raised by the political parties.... are becoming\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46209"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46255,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46209\/revisions\/46255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}