As we told you less than a week and a half ago, if you haven't heard the words "Super PAC" yet, you will be hearing them a great deal this year, thanks to the lack of regulation brought on by the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision.
In Florida and in the Omaha media market - thanks to the Iowa caucus - Super PACs have already been cramming political commercials into nearly every media opening they can think of, from TV, to radio, to newspapers, online, and even movie theaters. The ads have already begun in our DC media market too.
According to a new study just released by the Wesleyan Media Project, outside group spending on political ads in this first month of 2012 is already up 1600%. No, we didn't forget a decimal point. That's an increase of sixteen-hundred percent - and that's only been in the Republican primary.
What's more, the same study confirms: it's not just that it's a political year and you're seeing more political advertising. In TV ads alone, in the first month of 2012, 44 percent of all commercials aired on TV were political ads - but they were paid for by not by the candidates, but by those nearly unregulated groups, the Super PACs.
Super PACs aren't just staying on your TV and in your radio, though.
With nearly unlimited amounts of money at their disposal, SuperPACs have now taken to getting involved in things like phone banking, field organizing, direct mail, polling and on-site campaign activities.
While there had been some reported arguments between Super PAC staff and actual campaign staffers at the Iowa Caucuses in early January, in Florida on Monday, the Super PACs took it to the next level. Staffers of a Super PAC that supports Newt Gingrich invaded a campaign event for Mitt Romney, facing off against their rivals - in person - and making pointed claims that Romney is attempting to buy the Presidential election.
To our minds, that kind of conduct is simply uncalled for in political campaigns. If Super PAC staffers had been armed, and slightly less than ethical, who knows what the outcome of a similar conflict could be.
That's what happens when the only rule is money - and the only goal is winning. Absolute power corrupts absolutely - and unlimited campaign contributions cloud the political ocean so much that it's hard to tell the bottom feeders from the candidates.
We're as disgusted as many of you. So many politicians have their lips firmly affixed to the backsides - and nearly every other side - of the Super PACs right now. Because of the lack of regulations, however, the minute a single candidate or political party uses the weapon of a Super PAC, everyone else also has to use a similar weapon, if they want to truly compete.
In light of this kind of grotesque and disgusting display of money over morals in politics, we have a feeling that when this year is done - if not before - that even a Congress as divided as our current one will find a way to put the leviathan of unregulated campaign finance back into its hole.
After all, less than a week after the President mentioned the insider trading that members of Congress still can legally engage in, the STOCK Act – which would effectively ban insider trading by those elites on Capitol Hill – blasted through on Monday, in a 93-2 truly bipartisan vote.
Apparently, when voters get profoundly fed up and riled up with members of Congress on ALL sides of an issue, those elected officials can actually be spurred to take action.
By year's end, after a year of nearly unlimited political hate ads from every direction, we're fairly certain the American people will be ready to spur Congress to take similar action on the issue of campaign finance reform. Whether that watchdog actually will have teeth remains to be seen. Stay tuned.
