Post Citizens United v. FEC Closing Campaign Finance Disclosure Loopholes in Colorado 'M. Carroll - Weissmann, + In 1996 Colorado voters overwhelmingly approved a statutory form of campaign finance in “Amendment 15° with 66% of the vote. The legislature reversed those reforms in 2000. In 2002 voters approved a consfitutional form of campaign finance in Amendment 27 with 66% of the vote. Among other campaign finance reforms this law prohibited corporate and union contributions (unless via PAC or SDC). + Citizens United v. FEC, overtumed precedent in two cases and opened up independent ‘expenditures to corporations and labor unions without limit in the United States, + Even with the bans on direct corporate and union spending corporations and labor unions were still spending a significant amount of money on elections in PACs, Small Donor Committees, 527s. + In 2008: business spent $1.9 Billion on elections and labor unions spent $74 Million in total contributions through PACs, 527s with the current restrictions in place. [Open Secrets, FEC] + That will pate in comparison to the new, undisclosed, spending that will be allowed under Citizens United (jf the Colorado legislature does not act to close disclosure loopholes). + The Supreme Court has explicitly upheld our right to require full disclosures, even in the Citizens United case. ‘+ Our bill (M. Carroll ~ Weissmann) aims to close significant disclosure loopholes to avoid having millions of dollars of untraced money impacting Colorado's elections. The voters at least have a right to know who is spending what on their elections. ‘+ How much money are we talking about? We won't know for sure but + In 2009 Corporations reported $1.3 Trillion in Profits. in 2007 corporate pretax profits were $1.9 Trillion. [US Bureau of Economic Analysis, IRS]. (More than Gross Domestic Product for all but top 10 wealthiest nations). * Unions collect an estimated $13 billion in annual dues, a portion of that Is available for spending on elections and political activity. (Makinac] * One company, GlaxoSmithKline spent 2s much in advertising alone in 2007 as the entire 2006 midterm elections in 2006. ‘+ If Exxon Mobil shifted just 3% of their profit ($45.2 Billion) to politics that would dwarf the amount spent by Obama ($730 million) and McCain ($333 million) combined in 2008. Colorado citizens deserve to know who is spending what to influence the outcome of their elections!