Litigation

Editorial: Seeking Sunlight in Michigan

By Peter Hardin

As Michigan and other states grapple with shaping responses to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, a Michigan newspaper is making an impassioned plea for disclosure.

An editorial in the Grand Rapids Press asks Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land to provide rules for transparency and accountability when she delivers a response to the Michigan Chamber of Commerce’s request for a declaratory ruling on existing state law in the wake of Citizens United.

“What is needed from Ms. Land is a regulatory structure that will give the public the knowledge it needs to judge the message by the messenger,” the editorial contends. It says businesses freed by Citizens United to spend unlimited sums on political advertising should have to play by the same disclosure rules as candidates’ committees, adding:

“Without that change, voters will be in the dark. And well-monied organizations and people ? which ones, we won?t be exactly sure ? will be in charge.”

As an example of political spending hidden from voters, the editorial points to negative ads aired against Supreme Court Justice Diane Hathaway, the Democratic nominee, when she campaigned for that post in 2008:

“Commercials that characterized Ms. Hathaway as soft on sex predators were officially paid for by the Michigan Republican Party and the Michigan Chamber. The specific source of the funds? We have no way of knowing.”

Citizens United lifted restrictions on corporate political spending for independent advertising to support or oppose candidates in elections. To learn more about the debate over increased transparency in Michigan, check out Gavel Grab; for earlier Gavel Grab posts about Citizens United, click here.

Full post as published by The Gavel on April 19, 2010 (boomark / email).