Forty-seven individuals. Fit in a short school bus or a modest Chinese restaurant.
Like you'll ever see 'em in such surroundings.
US PIRG and Demos released a joint report today entitled "Million Dollar Megaphones", detailing their attempts to trace the sources of major donations to SuperPACs this election cycle.
"Attempts" rather than "successes" because, as they make clear in the first graf of the report,
The Top 5 “dark money” spenders on presidential election ads have reported less than 1% of their spending to the FEC, which is all that is required by the agency’s insufficient standards, according to a new report analyzing the latest campaign filings.
Still, even with that pervasive fog, PIRG and Demos have been able to divine a few facts about our aspirant masters. The most telling: there ain't that many of them.
More than half (57.1%) of the $230 million raised by Super PACs from individuals came from just 47 people giving at least $1 million. Just over 1,000 donors (or 0.00035% of the population) giving $10,000 or more were responsible for 94% of this fundraising.
Forty-seven people. $131.3 million. A little under three million apiece, if you average it out.
Which you oughtn't, really, because even averaging a group as small as forty-seven blinds one to the staggering sums spent to buy elections by an even smaller subset of that universe. Our old pal Sheldon Adelson and his wife have already plunked down $36.3 million this cycle, making the casino mogul's vow to spend a hundred mil before it's over quite credible.
The report is worth a look, though it may depress you a bit, knowing just how much money these few owners-in-waiting are firehosing into our electoral life.
But don't let it get you down. There's one advantage we have, one which we can and must use if we're to have a hope of overcoming this government-by-bid: us. Actual people, informed and inspired, willing to see our neighbors are educated, registered, ID'd and transported.
You may have your millions, Sheldon, but we've got ours, too. Millions of us.