Dear Reader,

When it comes to the corrupt use of power, sunlight is the best disinfectant. 

So argued Louis Brandeis in a magazine article in 1913, before he would go on to become a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. But in recent years, shadows have crept into our political system with the increasing role of dark money. In a time when billionaires are pumping funds into campaign coffers, transparency may be democracy’s only hope to neutralize the influence of money on our elections. 

Last week, news reports disclosed that Timothy Mellon, the heir to a Gilded Age banking fortune, had donated a whopping $50 million to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Despite a limit on individual contributions of $3,300 to candidates for federal office, Mellon was able to share his largesse with Trump by donating not to Trump’s individual campaign, but to the Make America Great Again political action committee, a so-called super PAC. Technically known as “independent expenditure-only political committees,” super PACs differ from their non-super counterparts in that they may spend on political campaigns without limit, so long as they don’t donate to or “coordinate” with the candidate. Of course, it doesn’t take much effort to know what kind of messaging will help your preferred politician. As a result, super PACs have become the tail wagging the dog in campaign funding, making wealthy individuals, corporations, and special interest groups a powerful force in politics. Funds may be used for advertising, a very expensive part of campaigning. This year, an ad watch agency predicts that $10 billion will be spent on political advertising.