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Lobbyists Get Potent Weapon in Campaign Finance Ruling
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of New York Times
Posted: January 25th, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/us/politics/22donate.html
The Supreme Court has handed lobbyists a new weapon. A lobbyist can now tell any elected official: if you vote wrong, my company ... will spend unlimited sums explicitly advertising against your re-election. We have got a million we can spend advertising for you or against you whichever one you want, a lobbyist can tell lawmakers, said Lawrence M. Noble, ... former general counsel of the Federal Election Commission. It is expected to unleash a torrent of attack advertisements from outside groups aiming to sway voters, without any candidate having to take the criticism for dirty campaigning. The biggest beneficiaries might be well-placed incumbents whose favor companies and interests groups are eager to court. It could also have a big impact on state and local governments, where a few million dollars can have more influence on elections. Fred Wertheimer, a longtime advocate of campaign finance laws, said the decision wipes out a hundred years of history during which American laws have sought to tamp down corporate power to influence elections.
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