The National Institute for Money in State Politics has issued a staff report on how independent political spending changed in Florida since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Citizens United v. FEC in January 2010.
In that U.S. Supreme Court decision (5-4 vote), the court ruled that the First Amendment prohibits government from censoring political broadcasts in candidate elections when those broadcasts are funded by corporations or unions.
The researchers found that the increasing use of independent spending in Florida allows both large donors and candidates to circumvent the state’s contribution and public financing limits and poor disclosure laws inhibited any analysis of the impact this spending had on the outcome of elections.
Between 2006 and 2010, $96.8 million of independent spending was reported in Florida, with just under half spent during the 2010 election. In each election, independent spending reached 25 to 30 percent of the amount contributed directly to candidates and ballot measure campaigns.
The use of Electioneering Communication Organizations (ECOs)—or “527s†after their IRS designations—allowed both large donors and candidates to circumvent Florida’s contribution and public financing limits.
A large donor can only give a candidate $500 per election, yet they are free to spend unlimited sums on electioneering communications, which are advertisements that seek to influence an election but fall short of explicitly endorsing or opposing a particular candidate or ballot measure. Candidates, particularly gubernatorial candidates, used ECOs to augment their fundraising operations and avoid the limits imposed by Florida’s public financing system.
Nearly 300 independent spending committees have been created since 2005, with innocuous names like “Let’s Get To Work,†“Florida’s Working Families,†and “Floridians for Truth and Integrity in Government,†with little or no identifying information. Yet many of these committees are registered to a small group of people. Of the $96.8 million of total independent spending during the study period, $38.8 million, 40 percent of the overall total, was routed through ECOs controlled by just four individuals.
The institute has created an independent spending database that provides the first analysis of how independent spending augments direct political contributions in Florida.
Here are the top 10 ECOs:
LETS GET TO WORK $17,453,125
FLORIDA FIRST INITIATIVE $6,005,576
FREEDOM FIRST CMTE $3,636,811
FLORIDA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ALLIANCE $2,445,863
REPUBLICAN STATE LEADERSHIP CMTE $1,250,000
TRUTH MATTERS $1,007,450
OUR ELDERS COUNT $887,853
FLORIDA FEDERATION FOR CHILDREN $868,010
FLORIDIANS FOR CONSERVATIVE VALUES $855,332
FLORIDAS FUTURE FUND $753,153