For supporters of tighter limits on campaign finance, Citizens United has become a kind of shorthand for the distorted influence of big money in politics.
But a new study on independent political spending by two law professors counters common assumptions about the impact of the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
Almost exactly four years ago, the high court held that unions and corporations have a right to freely spend their money to promote candidates as long as that support isn’t coordinated with the campaigns.
The study, appearing in the winter 2014 issue of the Indiana Law Journal, found a surge in spending by nonprofits and PACs across the nation after the ruling. But more surprising, it found that the increases weren’t driven by a few, large expenditures — those exceeding $55,000 — but by larger numbers of mid-range expenditures between $1,000 and $40,000.
“This finding is particularly striking because it cuts against the conventional wisdom of spending behavior,” write law professors Douglas Spencer and Abby K. Wood of the University of Connecticut and University of Southern California, respectively.