Disclosure needed on campaign fund sources

It's just wrong. Secret campaign cash should have no place in our American democracy. But now we are seeing huge sums of money from secret sources going into campaign advertising, much of it the negative advertising that poisons the airways.

Special interests spent millions of dollars in the election just completed and it threatens to drown out the voices of individual voters. Because of changes in the law, there are no disclosure requirements - even foreign government corporations could be funding these ads.

The League of Women Voters has been calling attention to secret money being spent on political advertising for months, but the U.S. Senate has refused to act to require disclosure, even after the House of Representatives passed a strong disclosure bill.

Essentially, these organizations are functioning as political action committees but without having to follow the laws requiring disclosure of their donors. It should come as no surprise that they lobbied against the DISCLOSE Act in Congress, which would have stopped manipulation of elections by fly-by-night anonymous hit groups, and prevented the infusion of undercover expenditures.

Voters deserve to know who is paying for election advertising. The League of Women Voters calls on all candidates to disavow secret advertising and asks our local media outlets not to accept ads unless the names of the true donors are made public.

Jean McMenimen

President,

Cedar Rapids-Marion

League of Women Voters