Third District Congressman Frank Lucas had a front-row seat to the federal campaign changes that have led to our country’s divides, putting much of that blame on the anonymity of dark money groups.
Lucas, who has represented Oklahoma in Congress for nearly 30 years, has kept the traditional outreach that many of his colleagues tossed to the side, such as live town halls with anyone able to ask anything.
No virtual speeches. No controlled crowds. No hiding behind social media accounts largely written by assistants.
True representatives of the people aren’t afraid to talk to those who may not agree. One area of agreement we have with Lucas is his assessment of how Congress became bitterly divided.
As reporter Randy Krehbiel wrote after a recent Lucas town hall in Mannford, “He longs for the days when candidates and parties ran political campaigns, corporations weren’t people, and dark money wasn’t legal.”
People are also reading…
Recent elections highlighted how shadowy groups are exerting influence in everything from school boards to congressional seats.
By July 1, anonymous political action committees sunk at least $17.2 million into the state’s primary races. In this past week’s election, 2nd Congressional District candidate Avery Frix, who lost to Josh Breechen, received more than $2.4 million from unknown sources. A group called Advance Oklahoma PAC poured money in the final days to oppose Tulsa City Councilor Connie Dodson. Donations in a couple of Tulsa Schools Board races from February cannot be tracked.
It may be impossible to curb the billions of dollars spent nationally on races. But, it is reasonable to expect more transparency on who is behind the money.
Lucas voted against the McCain-Feingold act from 2002 believing it would make campaign financing problem worse. He was right. It led to the U.S. Supreme Court Citizens United decision that declared corporations as “persons” with First Amendment rights. It allows for outside groups to spend unlimited money on elections.
Dark money is created when politically active nonprofits or shell companies give to super PACs, which then funnels that into campaigns. The originating sources do not have to disclose donors.
It has made candidates more beholden to the wealthy supporting super PACs, as Lucas noted.
“The system now is that an individual can drop huge amounts of money into one of these things, blow everybody up, and then the PAC that was created goes ‘Poof!’ into the night. It’s horrifying,” he said.
This is what Congress needs to address. Efforts to pass campaign finance reforms in Congress have been part of bigger proposals wrapping in voting and election measures. Those have made bipartisan support difficult to obtain, including Lucas opposing the For the People Act.
The Supreme Court has made reining in dark money challenging by consistently ruling that disclosure of donors behind political campaigns and political ads is constitutional. That doesn’t mean it’s an impossible task. If anything, finding a solution has become more important for a functioning democracy.
Featured video:
Ginnie Graham and Bob Doucette recap the primary/runoff elections and more, and anticipate that public education will be "on the ballot" in November. Another factor in the general election will likely be former President Donald Trump.
