The PAC figures are mind-boggling. Right to Rise USA, the Super PAC supporting Bush, raised $103 million in the first half of the year at a time when he wasn’t a candidate – a move campaign finance observers claim he used to coordinate the fundraising efforts of his PAC. Republican Scott Walker’s PAC, Unintimidated, raised $20 million yet the Wisconsin governor still left the race.
This showed direct contributions are still vitally important. That PAC money can simply be used to support another candidate’s campaign. The New York Times reported last week that just 158 families, mostly ultra-wealthy people who made their fortunes in finance and energy, gave almost half of all the seed money raised to support Democratic and Republican candidates: a whopping $176 million.
An indignant Sanders has argued that the US is turning into an oligarchy. A plutocracy is probably more accurate. Sanders’s claims are “essentially correct”, said Corrado. “Campaign financing in presidential races has evolved in a manner that has given great force to the wealthiest donors,” he said. “What we have seen is a transformation where a very small group of about 200 donors are responsible for a large share of money.”