Thanks Again, Citizen United
As the dust settles on this election, it's time to take a look at our generous sponsors, who have supplied Republicans with a lot of open funding and left us wondering where the dark money hides.
The top individuals and organizations, who spent the most money in this last 2024 election cycle to influence your vote, are listed below and they include Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, who own Uline shipping supply, and contributed more than $4.3 million to the Tea Party Patriots, a conservative-backed group that participated in the rally which immediately proceeded the deadly riot at the US Capitol on Jan. 6.
You can view the entire list here, but take note: these are only the top donors who have disclosed their donations, unlike some outside spenders, such as 501(c)(4) groups, that are not required to disclose the identities of their contributors.
The $4.3 million contribution by the Uihleins triggered the Democratic Attorney General Association (DAGA) to call on attorneys general across the country, and their counterpart, the Republican Attorney General Association (RAGA) and Republican attorneys general and candidates to refuse any future contributions from the Uihleins. This gesture of calling on Republicans to maintain an ethical path forward with regard to their funding was clearly symbolic, as RAGA exists to elect Republican state attorneys general, and asking them to properly police themselves during elections is like asking Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to grow a spine and actually require judges to disclose lavish donor gifts.
“This declaration and other corrections to their association are necessary actions on the only path forward for those who claim to believe in the rule of law and protecting our democracy,” said Sean Rankin, executive director of DAGA in a statement. “Republican AGs or candidates who choose to accept Uihlein money moving forward will be turning their backs on our country and ignoring the deadly attack on Congress on January 6th.”
RAGA is also organized as a group formed under section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code, which was not permitted to tell the public explicitly to elect or defeat a particular candidate until the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision in 2010. Now RAGA operates with near complete abandon and unabridged disregard of legal recourse concerning their political activity, thanks to their devout brethren at the US Supreme Court. The influential RAGA group was even implicated in the pre-game planning stages of the January 6th attack on the US Capitol, during a meeting which took place in a suite at the Trump hotel the night before the attack.
The Democrats have the exact same organization, which mirrors their Republican counterpart, but unlike RAGA, Democrats intent on electing Attorneys General throughout the country that represent their political agenda, have not adapted to the post-Citizens world that left ethics far behind in a quest for wealthy donors to rule the political landscape. With less transparency than ever before, we need to be vigilant and aware of the ruling class, which continues to fund their agenda in ways we don’t yet know about.
As Congress returns this morning to begin the unfathomable task of trudging through the motions, and pretending to care about the budget, the big picture has become more and more obscured with the events of last week. While I attempt to grab onto any semblance of familiarity to help me see my way out of this smoke and rubble, I am confident that sticking to the basics in this moment of political grab-ass will lead us to some answers that make sense. If we want to conduct a proper autopsy of what happened last week, along with some kind of a plan on how to pull ourselves out of this proverbial GOP hole, we would be best served by the following principle when nothing else makes sense — follow the money.
For more background on this issue, read:
Amee Vanderpool is feeling mouthy and writes the SHERO Newsletter, is an attorney, published author, contributor to newspapers and magazines, and an analyst for BBC radio. She can be reached at avanderpool@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @girlsreallyrule.
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What I want to know is does U-line have the contract with USPS for packaging materials? Flat rate boxes were redesigned with minimal dimensions changes within the past few years meaning that millions of dollars worth of shipping box inventory became obsolete literally overnight and had to be replaced. Where did those replacements come from?
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, my Senator knows where all the money comes from and has been telling us for years. This kind of money does not surprise me it’s chump change for the ultra wealthy and they want to keep it that way. Stay determined Amee, my generation of women has spent over 50 years of making a quilt of women’s and marginalized rights and we made progress. Right now we are in a mean mood. So stay determined . As Lawerence O’Donald so succinctly put it “ trump has to fulfill every promise he made in two years , and he can’t before the midterms. There is no excuse. People can ask why this why that it’s because of lobbying , it’s because of money quit moaning about it and act . I am in a really mean mood