Jeanne Shaheen: “to all of my colleagues who have come to the floor today to talk about the critical nature of spending in our campaigns…”

“to all of my colleagues who have come to the floor today to talk about the critical nature of spending in our campaigns, I say I am pleased to join them to talk about the importance of preserving our representative democracy by restoring some commonsense restrictions to our Nation's campaign finance system. As we have heard, Saturday was the second anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in the case of Citizens United v. The Federal Election Committee. Already we have seen how that decision has altered the landscape of politics in this country. When the Supreme Court struck down limits on corporate financing of elections, it ushered in the age of the super PAC. These so-called super PACs can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money during political campaigns with very limited disclosure requirements. This election cycle the floodgates have opened. Super PACs have already spent over $30 million in the 2012 cycle, and the election is still 10 months away. That amount of money is staggering. When I was home over the holidays in New Hampshire, before our Presidential primary, I witnessed firsthand that influx of corporate cash and what it does to the Presidential election. Negative ads paid for by the super PACs contributed to disaffecting our voters and drowning out the voices of the people, those ordinary, everyday citizens of New Hampshire who aren't able to put in tens of thousands of dollars, in some cases millions, to affect the outcome of an election.…”