Record Sum Will Be Spent On 2010 Election

It is easy to see these days why only the rich (or those with rich friends) can afford to run for political office in the United States these days. In the 2008 election a record amount of money was spent on political advertisements -- about $2.5 billion. That may actually be topped this year.

The 2008 election was a presidential election. Usually elections that happen in a year with a presidential election are more expensive than elections held between presidential elections. That is not true this year though. So far, the spending on political and issue ads this year has been $864 million -- $185 million more than this same time in 2006, and $50 million more than this same time in the presidential election year of 2008.

Considering the fact that over two-thirds of all political advertising money is spent after Labor Day, Advertising Age is predicting that political spending on ads may well top the $3 billion mark for the 2010 elections. Although the Democratic Party has raised a few million dollars more than the Republicans this year, the Republicans have outspent the Democrats by about $140 million so far. Add in the $400 million that right-wing groups have pledged to spend supporting Republican causes and candidates, and it becomes obvious the Democrats will be outspent this year (in spite of their very credible fundraising efforts).

Thanks to the recent Supreme Court decision equating money with free speech and allowing corporations and special interest groups to spend freely in political elections, it has become obvious that we have entered an age where the voices of ordinary citizens can easily be drowned out by dollars. Special interests can spend multiple millions of dollars to elect candidates to protect their own interests, regardless of whether that is good for the vast majority of citizens or not.

The effect of this will be to do away with any semblance of a democracy, and replace it with a rule by an oligarchy of corporate interests and special interests -- groups willing to spend enormous sums of money for a voice in decision-making. Ordinary citizens will no longer have a voice in decision-making. We are already well down the road toward this, and the recent misguided Supreme Court decision may have well been the final nail in the coffin.

There is only one way to stop this and return the power to the ordinary citizens of this country. We should outlaw all corporate and special interest spending (whether on the right or left) and publicly fund all federal (and state) elections. Even better would be to stop all funding of elections by anyone -- just give every candidate equal amounts of time on television and space in newspapers (and internet news sites). If needed, the government could reimburse for the time and space granted.

This would give all candidates an equal chance to get their message out, and stop the buying of candidates by corporate and special interests. The problem is that we may have already waited too long to do this. The corporate and special interests will not willingly give up the power they have purchased. They will fight very hard to keep the system as it is, and they probably already have bought enough candidates to win that fight.

Is it already too late? Are future elections just going to be a fight between special interests to see who can buy and elect the most candidates?