The Darkest Day in the History of American Super PACs

Today, Jan. 30, 2012, is a uniquely strange day in the history of American democracy. It's the day before Florida's Republican primary, and the gap between the million dollars in outside spending and the possibility of transparency through technology is, quietly, bigger than it has ever been in the history of the republic. "There's really two phenomena here," says Commissioner Ellen Weintraub of the Federal Election Commission, "the creation of the super PACs and the compression of the primary schedule." We'll add a third: the blurring of the line between coordination and independence. They add up to mean that, when it comes to campaign spending, at this very moment we know only a fraction of the information we have the ability to know.

Of course, Citizens United, decided by the Supreme Court two years ago this month, threw out restrictions on campaign funding by corporations and unions. But it was SpeechNow.org vs. FEC, decided by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals two months later, that opened the doors to unlimited spending by groups of individuals, as long as they're not in cahoots with campaigns. The two decisions together created "super PACs," largely unfettered political-spending vehicles with comically oblique names like Restore Our Future and Winning Our Future and Priorities USA . But these new groups weren't free to do whatever they pleased. The courts threw their weight behind the idea of transparency, singing of the Internet's ability to keep the system sane.

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