Courtesy of Pam Martens.
The landmark 2010 Citizens United decision at the U.S. Supreme Court, effectively ending democracy as we know it, made it legal for advocacy groups to accept unlimited funds from secret donors while openly campaigning for a candidate. Super PACs can now also accept unlimited sums from a single donor and spend every dime on attack ads against an opponent, providing they keep their activities separate from the candidate’s campaign.
What has evolved from the Citizens United decision is an incestuous world where campaign rules matter little to the masters of the universe.
The pro-Romney super Pac, Restore Our Future, has raked in $96,667,002 in this campaign cycle according to a recent filing at the Federal Election Commission. Almost half of that has sluiced out the back door to the ad buying firm of Mentzer Media. Mentzer Media is the firm that placed over $18 million in ads attacking John Kerry’s Vietnam War record during the 2004 presidential race from money funneled to it by Swift Boat Vets and POWs for Truth.
Mentzer Media is closely aligned with McCarthy Hennings Media Inc. which produces political ads. Its president, Larry McCarthy, produced the 1988 Willie Horton ad that accused presidential candidate Michael Dukakis of being soft on crime. The ad campaign used menacing images of Horton, a black man convicted of murder who committed armed robbery and rape after failing to return from a prison furlough. Dukakis was Governor of Massachusetts at the time Horton was furloughed.
According to Bloomberg News, Mentzer Media and McCarthy Hennings Media not only work for Restore Our Future, but for two other pro-Romney political groups: Americans for Prosperity, the nonprofit founded and funded by Koch billionaire brothers, Charles and David, and American Crossroads, a super PAC aligned with Karl Rove, George W. Bush’s political advisor.
Restore Our Future has close ties to Mitt Romney. Its treasurer, Charles Spies, and political strategist, Carl Forti, are former Romney aides. Spies’ wife, Lisa, is finance director of the Romney campaign.
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