The Brennan Center for Justice has released its analysis of political money in the 2014 U.S. elections. What has the Supreme Court's Citizen United decision wrought? Check it:
1. Dark money played a critical role in funding a new
Senate.
- Dark money in Senate elections has more than doubled since 2010, from $105 million in inflation-adjusted dollars, to $226 million in 2014.
- Almost half of the $1 billion in 2014 dollars that outside spenders plowed into Senate elections over the last three cycles, $485 million, was dark money.
- In the 11 most competitive races in 2014, dark money comprised 59 percent of nonparty outside spending. In the 10 competitive races that we have candidate spending data for, dark money comprised 28 percent of total spending (candidate, party, and outside group).
- The winners in the 11 most competitive races in 2014 together had more than $131 million in dark money supporting them — 71 percent of the nonparty outside spending in their favor.
2. Super PACs are funded by an exclusive few.
Of the 10 highest-spending super PACs in the most
competitive Senate races in 2014, all but two got less than one percent of
their individual contributions from small donors of $200 or less. Average
contributions from donors of more than $200 were in the five- and six-figure
range.
Across all federal elections since Citizens United was
decided in 2010, there has been more than $1 billion in super PAC spending.
Just 195 individuals and their spouses gave almost 60 percent of that money —
more than $600 million.
3. The wealthy have used single-candidate groups to support
candidates far in excess of federal contribution limits.
In the 11 competitive Senate races in 2014, 16
candidate-specific groups each spent more than $1 million in Senate elections,
twice as many as in the last election. Five of these groups spent more than $3
million; three of them beat the previous cycle’s record high of $5.9 million.
