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00:07In the United States, running for president is expensive.
00:15A party convention when you're not in a pandemic is around $120 million.
00:21About $6 million just for the venue.
00:24A few million more to make that venue look nice.
00:27That balloon drop, another $150 grand.
00:30And then there's all the travel, and your staff, and then there's the priciest part of it all.
00:35Ads.
00:36I approve this message.
00:38The 2016 presidential election cost $2.3 billion.
00:43Add in congressional races and that number jumps to over $6.5 billion.
00:49Other countries don't spend nearly as much on elections as we do.
00:53Except for India.
00:54But not if you break it down per eligible voter.
00:58A lot of countries have caps on how much campaigns can spend.
01:02Some countries, like Germany, also regulate ad airtime.
01:06This was Angela Merkel's ad in 2013.
01:09Her only one.
01:11It aired 156 times across all of German television.
01:15While in the U.S., 87 times as many ads aired in about the same window of time.
01:22During just one game show, Will of Fortune.
01:25We'll be back.
01:26We can get excited.
01:27American campaigns are also really long.
01:30Measuring from the first primary debate, the 2020 election took 496 days.
01:35The equivalent of about 12 German elections, or 24 French, or 41 Japanese ones.
01:43But with all that money...
01:45It is time for a check.
01:48...comes a lot of distrust.
01:5193% of Americans think that politicians listen more to donors than regular voters.
01:56I went through a period where I was feeling like I was checking out from our political system.
02:05You know, I showed up, I voted, probably spotty in some local elections, because I had felt like our system
02:13was bought and paid for.
02:15Often, the David and Goliath story ends with Goliath winning.
02:19But if money alone won elections, the 2016 Republican primary would have had a very different result.
02:28The general election would have, too.
02:30Money is just one element of what it takes.
02:33If you can take a look at some of the people who ran for president in 2020, they spent a
02:38ton of money, but they didn't get anywhere.
02:40Take billionaire Michael Bloomberg.
02:42His primary race broke spending records, with very little payoff.
02:48Time after time after time, and it happens every single election, the most well-financed candidate often loses.
02:56But if money can't guarantee you a win, why do we keep spending more of it?
03:02And what is it buying?
03:04This is something no amount of money can buy for you if you don't have it.
03:10People in California aren't going to let Texas billionaires steal this election with their millions of dollars.
03:15It's disgraceful, and it's a shame.
03:20It could be the oil companies.
03:21It could be Wall Street.
03:22You don't know.
03:23Their lips are sealed.
03:25The people spoke, and they spoke with a mighty boy.
03:30Money out!
03:31Money out!
03:32Apologies!
03:33Apologies!
03:34Apologies!
03:35Apologies!
03:35Apologies!
03:35Apologies!
03:36Apologies!
03:36Apologies!
03:43America has tried to limit election spending before, but every time we try to block it, it eventually finds another
03:51way out.
03:52The problem of spending in American elections is something that we've been struggling with for at least 100 years.
04:00And that struggle works in a sort of pattern.
04:03There's a huge scandal, and then Congress responds with reform.
04:09And then there's another huge scandal, and then Congress responds with reform.
04:14And after the Watergate scandal rocked Washington.
04:18People have got to know whether or not their president's a crook.
04:21Well, I'm not a crook.
04:23The reforms were historic.
04:25A major legislative outgrowth of the Watergate scandal was the campaign financing reform bill.
04:30The bill puts a ceiling on campaign contributions and strictly limits total expenditures of both presidential and congressional candidates.
04:38Saying who can give how much to whom and how all the details must be reported.
04:43But a lot of that didn't stick.
04:45Well, that was unconstitutional.
04:47This is Ted Olson, conservative super lawyer.
04:51He's argued over 60 cases in front of the Supreme Court.
04:54The First Amendment protects freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom of press.
05:07And in 1976, just a few years after Watergate, the Supreme Court ruled that election spending is speech that can't
05:16be limited.
05:16Not all election spending.
05:19Donations directly to a candidate, sometimes known as hard money, that's still capped.
05:25Because those limits are...
05:27...appropriate legislative measures to deal with the reality and appearance of improper influence.
05:34But the courts ban caps on what's known as soft money.
05:38Money spent independently from campaigns.
05:40In the mind of the court, when a political spender buys ads on TV or online or on radio, that
05:50is a matter of free speech.
05:52Those are expenditures to express a particular point of view.
05:57And since the 70s, the court has affirmed this idea again and again.
06:02Loosening regulations and creating new pathways for money to surge through our elections.
06:07And the most famous of those cases...
06:10Citizens United!
06:12Citizens United!
06:13Disastrous Citizens United decision.
06:15Money out!
06:16The American campaign finance system has been totally corrupted.
06:21Oh, people get everything wrong about Citizens United.
06:24It has been mischaracterized almost from the day it was decided.
06:29The case centered around whether or not Citizens United.
06:33A small, non-profit corporation, an ideological corporation...
06:38...could promote its film, Hillary the Movie, close to the 2008 presidential election.
06:44The movie was pretty critical of Hillary Clinton.
06:48She is steeped in controversy, steeped in sleaze.
06:52That's why they don't want us to look at her record.
06:54The government said that it qualified as a political ad, which corporations weren't allowed to make.
07:01But Citizens United argued that it was just a documentary.
07:06And was therefore protected speech.
07:08The more liberal justices didn't buy that argument.
07:12They worried that this kind of corporate spending would...
07:15Drown out the voices of real people.
07:17But five to four, Citizens United won.
07:21In Citizens United, the Supreme Court said that corporations and unions, like rich people,
07:26have a constitutional right to spend unlimited amounts of money supporting or opposing a candidate.
07:32So long as they don't coordinate that spending with the candidate.
07:37As long as it's independent, in the words of the Supreme Court.
07:42On the whole, hard money still makes up the bulk of election spending.
07:47But in the wake of Citizens United, that independent spending exploded.
07:53And if you break that down by source, you'll see most of it comes from a kind of group you
07:59may have heard of.
08:00Super PACs.
08:01Super PACs.
08:02Super PACs.
08:03Short for Super Political Action Committees.
08:06And while they're not supposed to work directly with the candidates,
08:10look at this Super PAC ad for John Kasich.
08:13It can happen again.
08:14It certainly looks like they were working with him.
08:17We follow the rules, plain and simple. Whatever the rules are, do not go over the edge of them.
08:22And he technically didn't.
08:24Neither did any of these candidates in Super PAC ads.
08:28That look a whole lot like campaign ads.
08:31Kasich's team said he filmed his ads before he was officially a candidate.
08:36And a Ted Cruz Super PAC was able to get this footage of him walking around a factory,
08:41dangling his feet from a dock, and watching a flag blow gently in the wind.
08:47Because the Cruz campaign dumped 15 hours of free footage online.
08:52I'm Ted Cruz, and we approve this message.
08:56I'm Ted Cruz, and we approve this message.
08:59And Super PACs aren't the only source of outside spending.
09:03There are also political non-profits.
09:05Which, unlike Super PACs, don't have to disclose their donors.
09:09Many of them have been around for decades.
09:12And they generally don't hide what they're about.
09:15But that's not true for these other groups.
09:18Just a handful of the hundreds of political non-profits that sprung up after Citizens United.
09:24So-called dark money groups.
09:26The way that dark money becomes dark is you have a political spender that doesn't want to spend
09:33under their own name.
09:35And so, say it's a corporation.
09:38A corporation will then give that money to an opaque non-profit.
09:43They'll name it something very innocent sounding, like Americans for Health Change.
09:50So it sounds relatively okay on its surface.
09:53And then they'll put a million dollars into an ad that says,
09:59guaranteeing health care is the worst thing that can happen.
10:02It'll take away all the care that you have.
10:05And those dark money groups can also donate to Super PACs.
10:10Individuals can do this too.
10:11If I were fortunate enough to have 50 million dollars that I wanted to give to a Super PAC,
10:17America's for America.
10:18He could just make his own little corporation.
10:21If I'm, you know, Lessig, Inc., all they have to do is report that Lessig, Inc. gave 50 million dollars.
10:27Of the 1.6 billion dollars spent outside of campaigns in 2016,
10:33almost a quarter came from groups that don't fully disclose their donors.
10:38And the agency responsible for regulating all of this spending?
10:42Motion fails by a vote of 3 to 3, 3 to 3, 3 to 3, 2 to 2.
10:46For now, the motion fails by a vote of 2 to 2.
10:49It's often stuck in a partisan deadlock.
10:52So one reason our elections are so drenched in money, we let them be.
10:58The only way you can communicate effectively is to have ways to amplify your speech.
11:05It might mean a microphone, it might mean a billboard, a book, a movie, a pamphlet.
11:11And money is necessary for all of those things.
11:14But at a certain point, you need to be spending more if you're going to remain competitive.
11:18And then at a higher point, every dollar you spend probably doesn't matter that much.
11:24Especially at the presidential level.
11:26A lot of elections are already really loud.
11:29There's constant news coverage, debates.
11:32Sometimes the candidates have been public figures for decades.
11:36We already know who they are and voters rarely cross party lines.
11:40So it's unlikely an ad could persuade someone either way.
11:44But as contests get quieter, a little money can go a long way.
11:54My name is Al Davis. I grew up on a ranch at Hyannis, Nebraska, out in the western part of
11:59the state.
12:01Al Davis loves Nebraska.
12:03You'll find just some beautiful country.
12:06People are great.
12:07They're hard working, dedicated.
12:09They love their state.
12:11They love their family and their communities.
12:13In 2012, he decided to run for state senate seat and won.
12:18It was a civil race. We had several debates and several meetings. And my opponent and I got along well.
12:26But when he ran for re-election in 2016, things were much less civil.
12:32His voters were suddenly flooded with mailers.
12:36Tell Senator Davis not to support corporate welfare.
12:39Tell Senator Davis not to support secret balance.
12:42Davis has urban values.
12:43One of those mailers says, we've moved. We've moved to Lincoln.
12:46Lincoln is Nebraska's capital city.
12:49And Al Davis' district is way over here.
12:52Obviously, if you're 350 miles from Lincoln, you can't drive back and forth every day.
12:58Well, you know, there were people that actually did believe that that had happened.
13:03I kind of let some of that roll off my back. But I mean, sometimes it is extremely hurtful.
13:08And you realize there's no way to combat it.
13:11Davis lost the election.
13:14I don't think that I would have lost if there hadn't been a significant effort to get me kicked out.
13:19And stories like his, they're becoming more common.
13:23All over the country, outside spenders are swooping in,
13:27turning up the volume on elections that used to be quiet,
13:30often with no way to know who they are.
13:33But we do know something about the group that sent this mailer.
13:37It's one of the several groups started by two billionaire brothers
13:40who are pretty famous for this kind of thing.
13:42Rise and resist!
13:44Back down!
13:45Rise and resist!
13:48Charles and the late David Koch made their money in oil and gas,
13:52and mostly give on the right.
13:54But there are lots of mega donors on both sides of the aisle,
13:58like Sheldon Adelson, and Michael Bloomberg, and Tom Steyer on the left.
14:03And those top 400 donors, a tiny sliver of the US population, accounted for over 19% of all political
14:13giving in 2016. And that's just the money we know about.
14:18It's often not given for purely idealistic reasons.
14:23Take the Kochs. They've spent a lot of money over the years on energy issues.
14:30I was a proponent of wind energy, still believe in wind energy because,
14:35you know, I represent a rural part of the state where we've got great wind.
14:38Maybe that's what it is.
14:40And while you might not be able to buy a loud election,
14:44if your candidate wins, that money is an investment.
14:48At the presidential level, you could get a powerful position in government.
14:52We elect representatives by telling them they have to raise their money
14:56from a tiny, tiny fraction of the 1%. And so they become dependent on that tiny fraction of the 1
15:03%
15:03and responsive to them rather than responsive to the people as a whole.
15:08There's this cartoonish idea of how dark money operates in Washington.
15:15Some lobbyist gives a member a bunch of money for their reelection campaign.
15:20And then when a bill like that comes to the floor, they'll call up that given member and they'll say,
15:25you know, you better not vote for this or else you won't get a check from us.
15:29But actually, Congress operates in a much more subtle and complicated way.
15:34They will hire academics. They'll pay them to conduct kind of biased studies.
15:41They'll deliver presentations financed by people that have a very specific outcome in mind.
15:47Like this one on climate change.
15:49It's an honor to talk about climate change because I like talking about insanity.
15:54Presented by two think tanks, both of which have received millions of dollars over the years
16:01from the oil and gas industry.
16:03There are a million ways that you can take an idea and change it to bend in your favor
16:08if you have the influence to do that.
16:11But for a long time, that influence was almost impossible to measure.
16:16Until...
16:17The bill is passed.
16:21The Affordable Care Act, like all major laws, went through an intense revision process.
16:27For weeks, the public submitted suggestions and lawmakers drafted and redrafted amendments.
16:34When the final bill was revealed, a researcher used a computer program,
16:38the kind college professors use to check for plagiarism, to see which comments had made the cut.
16:44It turned out, if you hosted a fundraiser for one of the bill's writers,
16:49the odds your suggestion made it in more than tripled.
16:53Members of Congress spent a lot of time fundraising for their next election.
16:58At events, lately they're mostly on Zoom or...
17:02Dialing for dollars.
17:03Calling people in their Rolodex over and over and over again for money.
17:07And it is soul-destroying work.
17:12New members are given a model daily schedule that included four hours of this call time.
17:19The most important question sometimes among colleagues is not what legislation are you working on,
17:23but how much money have you raised?
17:25Members of Congress, even the ones who are caught up in this system,
17:30don't want to be caught up in this system.
17:33But it's hard not to be. Running for Congress can cost millions.
17:38So if someone wants the backing of a major party...
17:41One of the questions that is perpetually asked is...
17:45How much money do you think you could raise?
17:46And if you can't come in and say, I can raise...
17:48$300,000 in three months or $30,000 in a week.
17:52They're not interested in supporting your campaign.
17:54So the kind of people that can run a traditional campaign...
17:58They made a lot of money themselves.
17:59Or they're just the kind of people whose friends have a lot of money.
18:04And they turn out to be people a lot like me.
18:07White, male, you know, over 50 lawyers who are connected to lots of clients with lots of resources
18:13who might help fund their campaigns.
18:15It's one reason the majority of Congress people are millionaires.
18:20Even if money doesn't determine who wins, it determines who runs.
18:25For me, as someone working in a restaurant, as a bartender...
18:31I probably couldn't even get two grand in a day calling everyone. I knew.
18:37So she had to get a lot of people to give a little bit.
18:40We are a people that build something from nothing.
18:44That is who we are. And that is what this campaign is about.
18:50People would open their living room for an afternoon.
18:52And then I'd just talk about why we should consider changing our representative.
18:57Her primary opponent raised 10 times as much.
19:01Even she was surprised when she won.
19:04She's looking at herself on television right now.
19:07But of the over 2,800 successful congressional bids since 2008,
19:13only 14, including hers, raised the bulk of their funds from small donors.
19:19But in all but one case, most of those small donors didn't even live in the candidate's state.
19:27And it's no coincidence that many of these politicians are on the far reaches of the political spectrum.
19:34It can be hard to inspire small donors around the country if you're a moderate.
19:39Most Americans don't want the system to work like this.
19:4477% think we should limit the amount spent on campaigns.
19:49But to do that, we'd have to overturn Citizens United,
19:53which would most likely require amending our constitution.
20:00But there is another way to reduce money's influence.
20:06In a lot of developed democracies, elections are funded at least in part with taxpayer money.
20:11And we have a fund for that, too, at the presidential level.
20:16On your taxes, you can choose to donate to it.
20:19But if candidates take public financing, they have to agree to a spending cap.
20:25Today, it's $103 million.
20:28But given how much campaigns cost these days, nobody takes this deal anymore.
20:33But in quieter elections, states and cities are now trying out their own versions.
20:38And it's working.
20:40The same way we invest in our bridges, our roads, our schools,
20:43a community can decide to invest in its ballot box.
20:47In Connecticut, candidates who agree to caps on spending are fully funded by taxpayers.
20:53And the majority of candidates participate.
20:56In Seattle, there are caps and a lot more voices.
21:00Because voters get a $100 democracy voucher to spend on the candidates of their choice.
21:06And in New York City...
21:08If your neighbor gives you $20, the public will match that $20 one, two, three, four, five times.
21:16In some races, it's now up to eight times.
21:19That $20 becomes $160.
21:23So small donors are a lot louder.
21:26Public financing won't stop outside spending.
21:30But there is something else we can do that would limit its power.
21:34Find out who's behind it.
21:39This is the Chevron oil refinery in Richmond, California.
21:44It's particularly prone to exploding.
21:47But in 2013, Richmond had had enough.
21:51The city of Richmond blames Chevron for negligence.
21:54The city of Richmond has filed a lawsuit against Chevron this morning.
21:57A lawsuit Chevron says it will vigorously defend.
22:01And defend they did.
22:03Chevron ended up spending $3 million trying to elect a mayor and a city council.
22:10That would be for Chevron.
22:14But California has unusually strict disclosure laws.
22:18So in fine print on their mailers and billboards, it said major funding by Chevron.
22:25The people of Richmond weren't pleased.
22:27We know Chevron.
22:28They flooded city council meetings, published articles, and took to the streets in protest.
22:34People over profits.
22:35Everyone knew Chevron was on the ballot.
22:38So when the results came in...
22:40The Chevron oil company came out the big loser.
22:43Fellow city councilman Nat Bates came in second.
22:46City councilman Tom Butt has the highly contested race.
22:48Money is just an amplifier.
22:50Trying to draw your attention.
22:52Convince you to think a certain way or to pick a certain candidate.
22:56But in every election, no matter how noisy,
23:00each voter has the power to choose which voices to listen to.
23:05And in those quieter elections, where money has the most power, so does your vote.
23:13Every single representative should be willing to say to you,
23:16this is a critical problem we must fix first.
23:20And if they're willing to say that, we can argue about the details.
23:23But the commitment to fundamental reform first is the critical commitment we need
23:29if we're going to fix this democracy.
23:31Every time you decide to not just pull a lever because some TV commercial told you to,
23:37but because you did your research and you looked at these candidates as human beings,
23:41and what they said themselves, you are making our democracy better.
23:46Money can buy a lot of things.
23:48But you get to decide if your vote is one of them.
24:39workers are selling them and verschillinize theirрузs.
24:40They're good.
24:41We're getting to decide if they're going to effective swings and game.
24:41We're watching this save and we're
24:41when our lead students are available in technology.
24:41We're evidence to see if we want to middle and early.
24:56You
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