Shining a Light on Corporate 'Dark Money'

If 2014 was the "Year of Dark Money" in elections, then 2016 is likely to be the "Year of Way, Way More Dark Money" -- that is, unless something big changes soon.

One of the most troubling aspects of the explosion of big money in politics in recent years is the rapid rise in spending by groups that aren't required to disclose their donors.

Right now, corporations and super-rich political donors like the Koch brothers can funnel millions into elections through groups that hide their identities, leaving voters and candidates unable to tell who's behind the attack ads they buy in bulk, or what their agendas are.

More than $600 million of this so-called "dark money" has already been poured into our federal elections, and that's only going to increase as we ramp up for the next presidential race.

Americans aren't happy about this.

When President Barack Obama called in January for a "better politics" where "we spend less time drowning in dark money for ads that pull us into the gutter," he wasn't just speaking for himself.

He was tapping into a deep-seated unease among everyday Americans who know that our political system can't work for us when it's awash in millions of dollars of untraceable money.

But President Obama can do more than simply call attention to the problem. He can take a big step toward fixing it by issuing an executive order requiring companies with government contracts to disclose their political spending.

That would mean that many of the nation's biggest corporations -- like Exxon Mobil, Lockheed Martin, AT&T, Chrysler, and Verizon, just to name a few -- would have to let the American people know about their political spending. That would turn some of that dark money into plain old "money."

As The Washington Post editorial board wrote earlier this year, disclosure is "the backbone of accountability." The public needs to be able to follow the money trail, see who's behind political spending, and call them out when they don't like what they see.

Even the Supreme Court's conservative majority, which opened the floodgates to unlimited corporate political spending with its 2010 Citizens United decision, has underscored the need for disclosure. Transparency, wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy in the ruling, "enables the electorate to make informed decisions and give proper weight to different speakers and messages."

Today, only one-fourth of the country's largest government contractors disclose their contributions to outside groups. That means that many of the corporations receiving the biggest government contracts -- from taxpayer money -- are likely doing a great deal of secret spending to influence elections.

President Obama is right: Ordinary Americans are tired of being pulled "into the gutter." We're tired of seeing corporations rig our political system with untold amounts of money from undisclosed sources.

The White House should issue an executive order to let voters see for themselves who's trying to buy political influence to distort our democracy.

What are these corporations trying to hide? And why should We the People hand over our taxpayer money to help them hide it?