By Rep. Pricey Harrison and Bob Phillips, Common Cause North Carolina
Rep. Pricey Harrison is a Democrat who is in her fourth term representing Guilford County. Bob Phillips is executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, based in Raleigh.
Two year ago, in a narrow 5 to 4 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money for the election or defeat of any political candidate in a local, state, or federal contest.
The Citizens United v. FEC decision essentially said that corporate political spending is protected by people’s First Amendment right to free speech; it equated corporations with people and political money with free speech!
The only limitation is that corporations can’t coordinate their spending with the candidate or the candidate’s political committee.
As you would imagine, the decision has triggered an outpouring of money by corporations into electoral advocacy through Super PACs, front groups, and other vehicles – more than $200 million since the decision.
The outcry against the Citizens United decision is also growing, and now it has a new ally – small business.
In a recent survey, small business owners said “corporations have an outsized role and say in politics” and “small business can not compete with big business bank accounts to be heard.”
The survey was conducted for the American Sustainable Business Council, Main Street Alliance, and Small Business Majority, three well respected small business network and advocacy organizations.
The survey found that 88 percent of small business owners hold a negative view of the role money plays in politics; two thirds of the owners said the Citizens United decision hurts small companies.
That shouldn’t come as a surprise. Corporations, with their lobbyists and regulated PACs, have long held sway as a big money source for candidates. Citizen United opens the door for new corporate creatures, like the Super PACs and non-profit front groups.
Already this year, these groups have outspent the candidates in the Republican presidential sweepstakes and had a large impact on the outcome in various states.
Small business can’t play the Super PAC game. They lack the financial muscle and thus lack the inside influence.
Yet small business, not big business, is truly the backbone and economic engine of our economy. They in fact create more jobs than corporate America.
But the interest of small business can be secondary to the corporations that spend big.
And that’s why small businesses can be such an important voice against Citizen United.
They can join the growing movement to call attention to the dangers of this decision. A movement that received a jolt recently with the launch of a national campaign by Common Cause called Amend 2012, with the website www.Amend2012.org.
All across America the campaign is about people speaking out against corporate money in politics, with the goal of getting Congress to initiate a Constitutional amendment repealing the Citizens United decision.
In some states, citizens are weighing in through ballot initiatives. Here in North Carolina, town councils are beginning to pass resolutions calling for the amendment. In addition, we are working on state legislation to try to mitigate the impact of the Citizens United case via better disclosure and shareholder approval of corporate contributions to political campaigns.
Meanwhile, we’ll see record amounts of campaign fundraising and spending this year, with big corporate money being a big part of the equation.
Having active and retired owners of small businesses speak out against the poisoning of our democracy by big money will be crucial. The campaign to overturn Citizens United will be a challenge, but it’s a challenge worth taking on for the protection of our nation’s future.