Moneys influence in the politial processes

Money is the "mother's milk" of politics and its effects reverberate throughout the legislative and government contracting processes. The last few legislative sessions of Congress have been less than productive and the genesis of that stalemate can be traced to the growing influence money, especially "outside" money known as Super PACS. In addition, the Supreme Court ruling in the Citizens United case opened the floodgates to big-moneyed interests and provided more political influence to groups like the Koch brothers’ backed Americans for Prosperity and Freedomworks. While individuals should be able to participate in the political process, we should examine the proper role of money in the political and government contracting process. This paper seeks to highlight the role of money in the political and government contracting processes and address some of the ethical concerns emanating from it including graft, greed, and bribery.
Members of the House of Representatives are elected every two years. Once elected, a member engages in a perpetual re-election campaign. Members are primarily concerned about their ability to effectively communicate with their constituents. While many host town halls and enjoy franking privileges to engage with their constituents, it also requires extensive fundraising to purchase tv, radio and print advertising. A member must juggle the interests of their stakeholders – constituents, special interest organizations as well as those who fund their campaigns. (This is known in politics as the iron triangle). Fundraising call time is known to consume a great amount of a member’s time. A presentation to freshmen member obtained by the Huffington Post made by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Co...

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...o limit potential corruption. It is a debate about money and speech in elections, but also a debate about whether if our democratic principles are being manipulated by the wealthy few.
Super PACs are an extension of independent expenditure campaigns as coordination and communications are not allowed between the super PAC and the candidate. However, while legally separate super PACs are often viewed as extensions of a candidate’s campaign. For example, in the 2012 Republican presidential primary, candidate Romney was criticized for the advertising run by super PAC “Restoring our Future.” On a MSNBC Morning Joe episode Romney was asked if he would ask the PAC to stop running an ad against opponent Newt Gingrich to which he replied, “I’m not allowed to communicate with a super PAC in way…my goodness, if we coordinate in any way, we will go the big house.”