The Campaign Legal Center’s President Trevor Potter was the featured guest on Bill Moyers & Company for an informative interview entitled, “Elections for Sale.”
More money is being spent this election cycle than ever before, much from secretive, outside groups. Some estimates show the cost of this election cycle will reach more than $5 billion, much of it in negative ads designed to depress the other side’s voter turnout. What is the role of money in a republican democracy? Is all of this spending corrupting? And are our elected officials and elections for sale with this sudden influx of money?
On Moyers & Company, Moyers and Potter discussed how American elections are bought and sold, who covers the cost, and how the rest of us pay the price. “I can assure you that if someone is spending millions of dollars to elect the candidate, the candidate knows where that money is coming from” Potter tells Moyers. “We’re creating opportunities for corruption and candidates being beholden to specific private interests because of funding, yet there's no disclosure to the rest of us.”
The view the segment click here.