Citizens United to... Megadonors United?
Mike Bloomberg, Miriam Adelson, Tom Steyer and Sheldon Adelson have all paid their way to becoming mainstays in the American megadonor class. Bloomberg and Steyer, who both ran for president in 2020, contribute to Democratic candidates — while the Adelsons donate to conservative politicians. Source: Salon/Getty Images
Citizens United v. The Federal Election Commission, a case decided by the Supreme Court in 2010, drastically changed the landscape of campaign finance and allowed increasingly powerful corporations to exercise their free speech rights in funding campaigns. Now, over 11 years after the Citizens United decision, it’s both the wealthy corporations and individuals putting their money — and by extension — influence into campaigns and their outcomes.
Recent data from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks federal election spending, shows that just 12 megadonors — at least eight of whom are billionaires — contributed a combined $3.4 billion to federal candidates and political groups between January 2009 and December 2020. Of the 12 megadonors, six generally supported Democrats and six generally supported Republicans. The data takes into account the self-funded presidential runs of New York City billionaire Michael Bloomberg and hedge fund manager Tom Steyer. Their presidential bids are another shocking display of money’s power in politics — instead of supporting specific candidates, money actually created these candidacies. The $3.4 billion amounts to 7.5% of the $45 billion that all federal candidates and political groups raised between January 2009 and December 2020, meaning $1 of every $13 spent on federal campaigns was from those 12 megadonors and/or their spouses.
The entire concept of the American Dream and republican government revolves around electing officials that represent the people. These twelve megadonors, no matter their intentions, detract from this concept with their undue influence on federal politics, and in turn, the actions of the federal government. The government cannot be “for the people, by the people'' if the rich are the only ones with the real power to sway elections. Now, 7.5% is not enough to swing an entire election, but this trend runs far deeper than the $3 billion. It’s no secret that ordinary Americans, across the political spectrum, feel that the federal government isn’t looking out for them. And that’s in part because of how the so-called public servants are elected. All donors living in the 100 top-giving ZIP codes accounted for about 20% of the $45 billion that federal candidates and political groups raised between January 2009 and December 2020, despite making up less than 1% of the population. Even in these wealthy ZIP codes, most of the political contributions can be attributed to megadonors, if not just a single one like in 10573 Westchester County, where 93% of the money comes from hedge fund manager Donald Sussman.
The existence of megadonors is a stain on the fair election process the founders of this country aimed for. They created the republic with memories of a controlling monarchy in mind. The option to create an oligarchy existed, but they chose a different route because this in order to design a government that empowers the people. It is quite clear that the unlimited contributions of individuals in the post-Citizens United campaign finance environment take away power from the people. Justice John Stevens argued in the dissent in Citizens United that there are compelling governmental interests to curb corporations' ability to spend money during local and national elections. The case should be retried and the same logic should apply to megadonors as well.