I empathize with the average voter who has to navigate an onslaught of political ads, left- or right-leaning cable news channels, and biased news coverage.
It could even get worse.
Here in Washington state, we have some of the strictest political advertising regulations in the country.
That’s one reason Google and Facebook don’t accept political ads from campaigns in the state. If accepted, we would be flooded with political ads.
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I’m pretty well versed in tracking who funds the ads you see on broadcast, cable, satellite, radio, and streaming services. This accounts for a huge portion of a campaign’s advertising spend.
But there’s still one black hole that makes tracking campaign ad spending difficult.
“Welcome to the era of dark money campaigns, because dark money campaigns have been on the rise over the last five to seven years,” political strategist and head of Strategy 360 Ron Dotzhauer told KIRO News Radio. He was talking about political action committees (PACs).
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The 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision allows PACs to spend as much money as they like on political ads for or against candidates, but candidates cannot engage
For example, one superpac gave Democrat Bob Ferguson $7 million, which is 35 times the amount PACS is giving to Liechert.
I would like to be told who the donors within PACS are and how their money is being used, but I can’t.
Despite Washington state’s disclosure law, what Dotzhauer calls “dark money” remains in the dark.
Until that changes, we will never see the light and we will never have true transparency in our elections.
Matt Markovich covers government and politics for MyNorthwest and KIRO Newsradio.
