Do our votes really mean anything with Dark Money, SuperPACs, And The Forbes 400?

Do our votes really mean anything with Dark Money, SuperPACs, And The Forbes 400?

The relationship between power and money is undeniable. The cost of running a successful presidential campaign has ballooned, with 2012′s presidential election standing at a record-shattering $2.6 billion. Some expect that number will be topped this cycle. Yet current regulation and the Supreme Court have set the rules against transparency, meaning the ultra-wealthy, most of which can be found in the pages of the latest issue of Forbes (or online here), can use their checkbooks as they like while responding to no one.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2015/10/02/the-koch-brothers-paradox-dark-money-superpacs-and-the-forbes-400/

If there’s any group in the position to move big money toward candidates and causes in the 2016 election, it’s the richest 400 Americans. One of the most politically active of that group, Charles Koch, told Forbes in an exclusive interview that the extended network of political organizations he and his brother control will spend $900 million to influence U.S. policy this presidential cycle, with some $300 million channeled directly into the race for the White House. Yet, when FORBES tallied the publicly available numbers for what the members of The Forbes 400 have made in political donations in 2015, the total was $60.5 million – a drop in the ocean. Together, brothers Charles and David Koch have donated a relatively paltry sum of $32,345 so far –at least publicly.

As we parsed data on political giving ahead of the release Tuesday of The Forbes 400, we found several patterns. First, the era of the SuperPAC and unlimited donations is among us; giving to these organizations dwarf anything directly donated to individual candidates, or even their parties. Second, the so-called “dark money” is where the action is, but because such donations don’t have to be disclosed, they are impossible to track.

Data from the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics’ (which runs the Open Secrets website) shows that at least 53%, or 213 billionaires from the The Forbes 400 made political donations this cycle. The five biggest political givers handed out more than $3 million apiece. Kelcy Warren topped the charts of publicly disclosed donations with $6.1 million (to a PAC for Rick Perry, who’s dropped out), followed by Diane Hendricks ($5.1 million to Scott Walker, who’s also dropped out), Paul Singer ($3.45 million), Oracle ORCL +0.00%’s Larry Ellison ($3.04 million), and Houston Texans owner Robert McNair ($3.03 million). The Koch brothers were nowhere near the top, while the controversial George Soros stood at ninth place, with a relatively meager $2.1 million donated this cycle. When compared to the $6.3 billion spent in the 2012 election, which secured President Obama a second term and the $2.34 trillion in combined net worth for the The Forbes 400, the political giving numbers this year seem awfully small. ( See this article for more on The Forbes 400 members who made the biggest political donations so far this year.)