Rep. Crow, Sen. Tester call for reforms during ‘dark money’ discussion in Aurora

AURORA | So-called “dark money” political contributions are a growing force in local and national elections, crossing all kinds of political lines, Aurora Democratic Rep. Jason Crow and guests said at a roundtable discussion in Aurora Wednesday.

In 2024, $20 billion was spent during the election cycle, and 75% of the cash was untraceable “dark money” , said Tiffany Muller, president of End Citizens United.

“Of course, corruption is happening,” Muller said. “Of course, we’re just seeing our government sold off to the highest bidder.”

She said there are now three lobbyists for every member of Congress. 

These and other campaign contribution issues were the topics discussed at the event at the Community College of Aurora among  Muller, Crow, Aly Belknap, executive director of Colorado Common Cause and Montana Democratic U.S. Senator Jon Tester. 

Crow held the panel with End Citizens United to discuss his work in Congress to combat campaign finance corruption and enact meaningful campaign finance reform, including his recent introduction of the End Dark Money Act, which aims to curb the influence of dark money in U.S. elections.

The Citizens United decision is a 2010 Supreme Court case that ended limits on corporate and union contributions in political campaigns. This allowed these groups to spend unlimited amounts of money on political campaigns. The ruling also granted corporations and unions the right to engage in political speech, based on the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech. The “dark money” moniker refers to court rulings allowing corporations and others to not disclose campaign contributions, often by creating murky non-profits which shield donor names and how much they contribute.

The Citizens United ruling also equates financial contributions with free speech, treating corporations as if they are individual citizens under the First Amendment.

“Big money has been just flowing in at billions of dollars to influence our elections and drown out the voices of everyday Americans,” Belknap said. “We also know that these wealthy, special interests use pretty sophisticated, actually pretty simple, tactics to keep their political spending secret.”

These “layers of opacity” involve money being passed through shell organizations that create loopholes to legitimize and legalize the process, concealing the true source of those political contributions, Belknap said. 

The Supreme Court allowed unlimited corporate spending in elections based on the assumption that such spending would be fully transparent and independent from campaigns, with no direct coordination. However, these assumptions have not held up in practice, she said. 

“These assumptions that the court made have not held up,” Belknap said. 

Every year, Crow said he reintroduces the End Dark Money Act, which he also introduced in Congress this year, to crack down on untraceable political contributions. This year, he also introduced the Shell Company Abuse Act, a bipartisan bill aimed at limiting foreign interference in U.S. elections. 

“Citizens United is this dark money flowing into our politics,” Belknap said. “It undermines the idea of one person, one vote and the idea that government is vying for the people, and that is something that is really internalized by the American people and by Coloradans.” 

This has caused people to become disillusioned with the political system, which impacts participation and democracy, Belknap said. 

“In the 1950s, about 73% of Americans trusted the federal government to do what is right,” Belknap said. “Today, that number is down to 16%. That’s a historic low, and it directly impacts participation in democracy.”

In Montana, Tester said the U.S. Senate race in 2006 drew $27 million in spending, and by 2024, that had shot up to $275 million. He said the vast majority of the money was dark money, which even the candidates didn’t know the source of. 

“I guarantee you, corporations don’t give a pile of money unless there’s an agenda behind it,“ Tester said. 

Belknap said that the Supreme Court ruling came from the idea that corporations are an association of citizens, but most Americans agree that a multinational corporation with billions of dollars of profit and international influence is not the same as a church or a localized group of citizens that is dedicated to cultural, religious or mission based work. 

“That’s why campaign finance reform is so popular,” Belknap said. “The American people agree with this, and so do Coloradans, because every time campaign finance reform or transparency is on the ballot, we vote for it in very high numbers.”

Dark money became a force in Aurora’s last state legislative races.

Three Arapahoe County Democratic legislative races drew unusually large amounts of so-called dark money from independent election committees, according to multiple recent reports.

The Colorado Sun reported that more than $350,000 of dark money from unnamed donors poured into the Senate District 28 Democratic contest between veteran state Rep. Mike Weissman and Pinnacol Assurance attorney Idris Keith. The Sun reported that Colorado dialysis magnate Ken Thiry was behind $1.1 million in last-minute spending for contests across the state benefitting candidates from both parties seen as more moderate than their competitors.

Weissman won the primary, and the general election race, despite the influx of dark money.

Other suggested solutions

There is unlikely one single measure that would prevent the flow of dark money into elections, and any reform will be an uphill battle, roundtable participants said.

“There’s a lot of legislation that we’ve talked about that we need to pass,” Crow said. “The honest truth is, right now, we’re not in the position because people who are dedicated to passing these reform bills don’t have the ability to pass them in the current format of the House, or in the Senate. But that doesn’t mean we quit trying.”

He said that if there were a bill he could magically make pass, it would be to end gerrymandering, where districts are drawn in favor of a particular party by the party in power.

Gerrymandering is one way that the House of Representatives has become so divided, Crow said. Getting rid of gerrymandering would cause elections to be less polarized.

“Nobody is served by deep blue and deep red districts,” Crow said. 

Not long ago, there were purple seats where parties had to work together, he said. Now there is no incentive for it. 

“There was a plurality that enforced collegiality and forced legislating,” Crow said. 

Colorado has become a national model for nonpartisan redistricting, with a constitutional amendment removing politics from map-drawing through independent commissions and Supreme Court oversight, Crow said. 

There are other times in American history when citizens fought back against the political system, Muller said.

“Let’s go back to the Gilded Age, where we saw an economic and income inequality that’s rivaled only by today,” Muller said. “We saw permanent power being held in just a few hands.” 

That movement led to the direct election of senators and the Tillman Act, which banned corporate contributions in federal elections for nearly a century, she said. 

In the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, the United States implemented extensive reforms, including the establishment of the Federal Election Commission, as well as contribution and disclosure limits, Muller said. 

“Let’s renew them,” Muller said. “I believe that what we have seen is that the people will keep fighting this fight.”

Colorado’s strict disclosure laws and the ability to file campaign finance complaints have proven effective in deterring dark money groups like the Koch brothers, who contribute far less to Colorado elections “because they didn’t want to be exposed for all of the money they were spending,” Muller said. 

“We might not be able to just overturn Citizens United legislatively,” Muller said. “We can pass disclosure and transparency, and we know that that works. We know it because we’ve seen it in state after state.” 

The Federal Election Commission, established 50 years ago, is now largely dysfunctional due to partisan stalemates and a lack of a quorum, Muller said.

“We could reform the Federal Elections Commission and make it work,” Muller said. “Have a watchdog on the beat again.” 

She also recommended passing online disclosures to identify who is funding political misinformation online, as well as ethics and transparency reforms for the Supreme Court, so that they can’t receive millions from individuals with cases before the court. 

Finally, Congress needs to find ways to regulate social media and other algorithmic media sources that can spread political disinformation, Crow said. 

“This is one of the most pressing issues facing our democracy,” Belknap said. “The use of the Internet and algorithmic media to push and funnel people into information holds that solidify pre-existing beliefs.”

Some of these algorithms are pushing younger generations into extremist views because they are less equipped to detect misinformation, Crow said. 

“I’m a parent of young children, and it is damn tough raising kids in America today because of all these influences,” Crow said. 

Crow and Tester said that people can call their congressional representatives and demand accountability. Tester said to call family members and ask them to contact their congressional representatives to tell them how important the subject is.