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The Koch brothers have vowed to spend a billion dollars on the 2016 election, and they've hired a team of 25 operatives, including one former CIA analyst, to keep tabs on progressive activists and organizations like us. Tell President Obama it's past time to fight back -- tell him to get secret money out of our elections NOW.
Friend,
In 2012, more than $300 million in secret money was spent by billionaires and special interests hiding their identity – and the Center for Responsive Politics just found there’s been 10 times as much dark money so far in the 2016 election compared to the same point in the 2012 cycle.1 What are billionaires trying to hide? This week it was reported that Charles and David Koch built a secret operation to spy on environmental groups, progressive activists and organizers.2
President Obama has the power to fight back – without a broken Congress – but so far he hasn’t. Sign here to tell President Obama to take immediate action to fight the corrosive influence of secret polluter money in our politics.
Working with partners across the climate and clean elections movement, we've created a petition that integrates with the White House’s own petition tools. By signing now at PresidentObamasLegacy.org you'll make sure President Obama knows we're demanding action right away, and when we hit 100,000 signatures he’ll be required to publicly respond.
President Obama has the tools to fight against secret billionaires drowning our elections in dark money ads. And he can use them without Congress. President Obama can – and should – immediately:
- Issue the #NoSecretMoney executive order, requiring big federal contractors to reveal their political spending;
- Publicly call on the leaders he appointed to the SEC, IRS, and FCC to use their authority to reduce dark money; And
- Replace the five commissioners on expired terms at the dysfunctional FEC – which should be the “cop on the beat” for elections – with nominees who will enforce the law.
We know Obama understands the problem. He’s said we “basically have millionaires and billionaires bankrolling whoever they want, however they want, in some cases undisclosed. Essentially it means that ordinary Americans are shut out of the process.”3 And in the last few weeks, we’ve seen Obama take bold executive actions when we demanded it: from blocking the Keystone XL Pipeline to pledging to veto congressional attempts to subvert action at the Paris climate talks.
But so far, the president is on track to leave a failed legacy when it comes to secret polluter money corrupting democracy. The time has come for the president to launch a new legacy right now. Sign now to tell President Obama that inaction is inexcusable, he must act immediately to ban secret polluter money in our elections.
Thanks,
Drew and the clean elections team at Environmental Action
1 - Tom Kertscher, Ten times more 'dark money' has been spent for 2016 elections, Politifact, November 5th, 2015
2 - Kenneth P. Vogel, The Koch intelligence agency, Politico, November 18 2015
3 - Matea Gold, Obama: Wealthy special interests contribute to budget impasse, The Washington Post, October 8, 2013
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