The head of a North Carolina non-profit organization that aims to educate voters about elections and the election process says a U.S. Supreme Court decision this morning will have a seismic effect on Tar Heel politics. That's saying a lot, given how N.C. politics has often been at the center of trends shaping how candidates and campaigns go about their work -- from the bruising campaign between Frank Porter Graham and Willis Smith for the U.S. Senate 60s years ago, to the transformation of national politics with the fund-raising and advertising campaigns by the National Congressional Club to help Jesse Helms, to the redistricting battles here that have shaped campaigns as well as legislatures and Congress.
The Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United vs. FEC struck down restrictions on corporate giving in elections, freeing up corporations including powerful labor unions to spend unlimited amounts in elections. Damon Circosta, executive director of the N.C. Center for Voter Education, said in a news release that the decision makes North Carolina's experiment with public funding of elections even more important as a way to avoid the impact of huge financial contributions on our elections. Here's what Circosta had to say:
"We are disappointed in today's ruling that essentially grants moneyed interests an outsized role in our democracy. When corporations are left unfettered to influence the political process, everyday citizens get left out. If politics is about a level playing field where ideas compete to be heard, the Supreme Court just handed an amplifier to the very folks who already had a megaphone.
"Although there is a great degree of concern among reform advocates that this decision will only exacerbate the 'pay-to-play' system of campaign contributions in exchange for preferential treatment, this decision creates even more urgency around alternative campaign funding models such as public campaign financing.
"We know that public campaign financing works to curb special interest influence and we also know that courts have repeatedly deemed such systems to be constitutionally sound. North Carolina has been a national leader in establishing a public financing alternative. In the wake of this latest decision by the Supreme Court, we expect more support for programs that empower citizens to participate in their democracy."
