Tom Udall: “So we can see why I am disappointed with the partisanship that has taken over this important issue. It is not like the…”

“So we can see why I am disappointed with the partisanship that has taken over this important issue. It is not like the problem of money influencing our elections has been solved. The recent Supreme Court decision struck down laws my Republican colleagues voted for. I hope they will be willing to work with us now to pass disclosure laws that will withstand judicial scrutiny. And unless we take action, I fear things will only get worse. Earlier this year, my friend Senator John McCain said the following at a panel discussion on campaign finance reform: What the Supreme Court did [in Citizens United] is a combination of arrogance, naivete and stupidity the likes of which I have never seen. I promise you, there will be huge scandals because there's too much money washing around, too much of it we don't know who's behind it and too much corruption associated with that kind of money. I think Senator McCain is right. I recall the debate when we considered the DISCLOSE Act in the last Congress. Many of our concerns then were still hypothetical. We could only guess how bad it might get. Well, now we know. Unfortunately, our worst fears have come true. The toxic effect of the Citizens United and SpeechNow decisions has become brutally clear. The floodgates of campaign spending are open and gushing and threaten to drown out the voices of ordinary citizens. Look at what we have seen already. Huge sums of unregulated, unaccountable money are flooding the airwaves.…”