WASHINGTON — Now more than ever, candidates are running campaigns funded by large, undisclosed donations known as dark money. Such donations often go overlooked. But one non-partisan watchdog group in DC, called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, or CREW, has dedicated itself to investigating the practice. 

Robert McGuire is the research director for CREW and searches through tax documents from dark money groups for any signs of improper use. 

“They’re not itemized,” said McGuire. “They’re not as detailed as we would like.”

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McGuire said after a Citizens United ruling in 2010, corporations were allowed to spend money on electioneering and ads, without revealing their donors, which sparked a sharp increase in dark money spending in 2012. 

He said according to research from the Center for Responsive Politics, election spending from outside donors and groups, for state and federal races, jumped from $296 million in the first decade of the 2000s to $4.5 billion in the second.

“It’s not that money buys outcome. It’s that money buys access,” said McGuire. 

It’s access that the average American wouldn’t have. McGuire said if voters’ voices were weighted against wealthy donors much more than often: voters would lose. 

He cited a Princeton professor’s 30-year study that shows policies supported by “economic elites” were over twice as likely to “become law” than a policy favored by the majority of all voters, and California is no exception. 

“So California is a state in particular that has both a lot of wealthy business interest, but some of the wealthiest people in the country,” said McGuire. “In the post-Citizens United era, one of the most notable campaign finance scandals was in California, where there were dark money groups from around the country that were funneling money into ballot initiatives in California.”

McGuire is referring to a 2013 case that identified two Arizona-based nonprofits as the source of $15 million in secret donations, used to influence 20-12 ballot propositions in California. McGuire said he’s seeing shady money creep closer and closer to home. 

“Because not only does the money go further in elections where they’re cheaper, there’s also more elections at the state and lower level,” he said. 

McGuire said there needs to be reform and that CREW supports HR1, a bill passed through the House that calls for all donors to be public, all campaigns to be financed by small donations, and for digital platforms like Facebook and Twitter to disclose the source and cost of all political ads. 

“What really drives what happens in Sacramento or Washington DC is what sort of elite donors want to happen,” said McGuire. “What’s really alarming is that it’s been allowed to go on for this long.”