Making Sure North Dakotans' Voices are Heard -- Loud and Clear

Statement

You've heard the messages on the radio. You can't get away from the ads on TV. And maybe by now it's all become one big, garbled tangle of sound and technicolor of pointed fingers, lauded backgrounds, and desperate pleading for you to vote this way or that on November 8th.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, presidential candidates have raised $1.3 billion this election cycle -- while the super PACs that support them and are able to accept unlimited political donations -- have raked in about $600 million. Compare that to where we were four years ago -- super PACs have already raised over $765 million more this cycle than they did across the board than 2012. That's a chunk of change -- and it's growing.

Ever wonder where it's coming from? Since serving as North Dakota's Attorney General, I've pushed to overturn the Supreme Court's 1976 Buckley v. Valeo decision that equated money with speech. The case determined that restrictions on independent campaign expenditures violated the First Amendment right to free speech.

Unfortunately, with the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision in 2010, the court doubled down by holding that corporations deserve the same free speech protections as individuals. As a result, infinite amounts of secret money started pouring into super PACs on all ends of the political spectrum, often used for negative advertising. That means out-of-state -- and even out-of-country -- millionaires and billionaires got a direct outlet to pay as much as they want to influence your vote.

No North Dakotan deserves to have their voice drowned out by dark money, but for too long in the wake of court decisions and legal loopholes, that's exactly what happened to so many who can only afford to chip in a few dollars to support a candidate or cause that's close to their heart.

In North Dakota, touching the hand of every voter -- knowing their family, their business, and what their community means to them -- is paramount. The ability of secret, out-of-state groups and money to enter our homes and anonymously try to influence our vote is unsettling to say the least.

No one knows North Dakota values, and what hardworking families across our state need better than us. That's why since I served as North Dakota's Attorney General I've been pushing for the transparency all of us deserve in the campaigns that determine elections -- and the policies that will govern them. And I've supported a constitutional amendment to allow Congress and states to set up reasonable limits that will level the playing field for voters and big-money donors.

In the U.S. Senate, I cosponsored legislation to shed light on the faces behind checks for $10,000 or more during election cycles. The DISCLOSE Act would make sure organizations spending or receiving $10,000 or over are disclosing the amount, their donors, and the agenda behind expenditures over $1,000 to the Federal Election Commission within 24 hours. We need to know who is speaking in elections, and this bill would help make that possible.

But we can do more to make sure wealthy donors who couldn't pick out North Dakota on a map don't have more sway in our elections than hard-working North Dakotans. In June, I helped introduce a package of bills to make campaign finance laws more transparent and crack down on secret campaign spending, amend the Constitution to end unlimited campaign contributions from billionaires who seek to anonymously influence elections, and reform lobbying to limit the influence of special interests in the political process.

Even after the ads from this election cycle fade to static, I'll keep fighting to guarantee North Dakotans are heard over the growing cacophony of big-money voices. That is our right and part of the foundation of preserving our democracy.

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