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Republican coffers bulge as business cheers
Richard McGregor, Financial Times - When US courts in 2010 swept away decades of legal precedent and lifted caps on corporations giving money for elections, critics conjured up the usual bogeymen waiting in the wings to bankroll pliant politicians.
ExxonMobil and big oil would use their billions take over energy policy in the wake of the case. Wall St would take advantage of the changes to crush regulatory reform, and so on, all of which they doubtless have an interest in doing.
So far, however, the fallout from the Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in the Citizens United case has not played out as many of the decision’s critics had predicted.
The ruling has transformed US politics, unlocking hundreds of millions in funds for new groups operating outside of the formal candidates’ campaigns. But very little of the money raised by the new super political action committees has come from the corporations the ruling conjured up, big business in the form of the Fortune 500.
