CHARLESTON, W.Va. - According to people working to undo Citizens United, that Supreme Court decision giving corporations the right to make unlimited political contributions is so unpopular that it won't be the law of the land much longer. The group Move to Amend says corporations should not have the same constitutional rights - including free speech - as individuals.

Spokesman Dave Cobb, a member of the Move To Amend national leadership team, says polls have found that 80 percent of Americans across the political spectrum feel the same way.

"Whether they're a Democrat, a Republican, an Independent, a Green, a Libertarian, this is not just an issue. This is a principle about how our government is supposed to operate."

In "Citizens United vs. The Federal Election Commission," the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the government could not limit corporate and union political spending, because buying ads is a form of free speech. Separate rulings had found that corporations have many of the same constitutional rights as individuals, including free speech. The court decisions mean super-PACs (Political Action Committees) are able to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on attack ads this election.

Cobb says the decision is gut-level offensive to people. When his group puts forward a constitutional amendment to address it, he says, people will respond.

"We put it on the ballot, it passes by 70, 75, 84 percent of the vote. There is no doubt that Citizens United is not going to be the law of the land within 10 years."

Cobb says corporations can have privileges, but never the same rights as people. However, he notes that courts have overturned numerous laws because they violate the rights of corporations.

"The only time I believe the courts should actually overturn a democratically enacted law is if that law actually violates the rights of a living, breathing human being."

Cobb has traveled around the country for the last year and a half talking about the issue. He was in Charleston on Friday. He says he has never seen a court ruling that offends so many people so deeply, which is why he expects it to be changed - one way or another.

More information is available at www.movetoamend.org.



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Pennsylvania's Senate race is garnering national attention, with Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz running to replace retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey. A new report examines how outside spending from Super PACs and national donors affects voters.

The report from American Promise includes recent survey results that say more than 70% of Pennsylvanians think big donors have too much political influence.

As they can expect to see hundreds of millions of dollars poured into political ads for the Senate race, Bill Cortese of American Promise said "dark money" can create a sense of mistrust among voters.

"Pennsylvania voters deserve to learn about the candidates who are running and make their own decisions on this, without being influenced by outside groups," said Cortese. "Democrats, Republicans, Independents all agree that this outside money - from people who, most of the time, don't reside in Pennsylvania - is troubling."

Lt. Gov. Fetterman's team has raised over $16 million, a large portion from organized labor, as well as a big donation from a D.C.-based progressive super PAC.

TV Celebrity and patent medicine pitchman Oz has raised over $15 million. He's supported in part by the American Leadership Action PAC, which raised over $4 million.

Jennifer Mann is an Allentown-based consultant and former state representative. She said over the years, the money funneled into races has skyrocketed, in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.

Mann added that when a majority of campaign donations are coming from a small but wealthy group of people, it discourages others from participating in the electoral process.

"What we want to do is go back to what the intent is, in the founding of this country," said Mann. "And that's for citizen legislators, for regular folks from all walks of life, to participate in the process. They're just being drowned out by specific agendas and big money."

State Rep. Meghan Schroeder - R-Bucks - is calling on Congress this month to enact the "For Our Freedom" constitutional amendment, which would give state lawmakers the "authority to regulate" political campaign donations.

Support for this reporting was provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Ohio's primary election includes candidates in the race for governor as well as many U.S. congressional districts, but the race to fill retiring U.S. Sen. Rob Portman's seat is getting national attention.

It is an open-seat race in a quintessential swing state, with the possibility of a competitive general election in the fall.

Jacob Rubashkin, reporter and analyst for Inside Elections, explained former President Donald Trump held a firm grip over the field of eight candidates.

"Making all these candidates come down to Mar-a-Lago, really relishing in the fact that almost all of these candidates, of course with the exception of Matt Dolan, are going above and beyond to try and win his endorsement because the former president is still the most influential figure in the Republican Party," Rubashkin observed.

Trump endorsed J.D. Vance, an author and political newcomer who reversed his anti-Trump stance when he entered the race. Vance had been neck-and-neck with former state treasurer Josh Mandel, who is backed by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and retired General Michael Flynn. But now Vance holds a slight edge in polling over Mandel and Sen. Matt Dolan, R-Chagrin Falls.

On the Democratic side, Rubashkin said Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, of Youngstown is the clear front-runner over attorney Morgan Harper, who worked for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

"Morgan Harper is a credible candidate," Rubashkin noted. "She was not able to generate the same level of enthusiasm as some other progressive challengers in recent Senate primary memory. Tim Ryan has the support of pretty much the entire Democratic establishment. He's got the money, he's got the campaign infrastructure."

Whether a Democrat or Republican wins, Rubashkin said Ohioans can expect a different approach from whoever fills Portman's seat.

"He is a figure from a previous era of politics," Rubashkin observed. "This is a guy who served in the George W. Bush Administration. He represents perhaps a more at least temperamentally moderate, pragmatic wing of the party."

Portman served in the U.S. House from 1993 to 2005. He's been a U.S. Senator for Ohio since 2011.

Members of social-justice organizations gathered outside the Wisconsin State Capitol on Tuesday in an effort to draw attention to allegations of unethical behavior by U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who has faced criticism in recent years for endorsing tax laws that benefit him personally.

Miranda Stark, deputy program director for the group Opportunity Wisconsin, said Johnson's personal net worth is 400 times greater than that of the median American household, which the Federal Reserve estimated was less than $122,000 in 2020.

"Now this didn't just happen on its own, and it certainly wasn't because of some smart investing," she said. "Sen. Ron Johnson, time and time again, has prioritized his personal profits over the people of Wisconsin."

Multiple investigations found that in 2017, Johnson pushed for tax breaks that directly benefited not only his personal holdings, but those of his largest donors as well. Johnson has said those measures benefited a wide swath of businesses across the country, spurring economic development and job creation.

However, Stark said the 2017 tax law encourages large companies to leave the state, in part through significantly reducing tax rates on profits brought back from overseas.

Richard Hampton, a former employee of Hufcor, a Janesville-based company which last year announced plans to close its Wisconsin manufacturing plant to move operations to Mexico, said the town has lost many of its jobs in recent years.

"We need jobs there in Janesville," he said. "We're losing all our big companies. We lost General Motors, we lost Lear Seating, now we lost Hufcor."

Based on filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Opportunity Wisconsin calculated that Johnson's estimated net worth at about $48 million in 2020.