Heloise-style advice for corporations trying to influence elections
According to TPMMuckraker's Zachary Roth:
In the wake of last month's Citizens United ruling, a powerhouse Washington lobbying firm is informing its corporate clients on how they can use middlemen like the Chamber of Commerce to pour unlimited amounts of money into political campaigns, while maintaining "sufficient cover" to avoid "public scrutiny" and negative media coverage.
Lawyers for the firm K&L Gates posted this Q&A primer on the firm's website. In one section, K&L Gates suggests that corporations might "form coalitions or use existing trade associations to support candidates" because "this indirect approach can provide sufficient cover such that no single contributing entity receives the bulk of public scrutiny."
The Q&A primer also suggests that corporations "could further lower their profile" by using independent expenditures that could "take the form of advertisements in 'under-the radar' sources, such as ideologically-based talk radio, web-based ads or phone banks."
It's safe to assume a lot of corporate officials are reading these kinds of legal advisories so they can push their agenda in the post-Citizens United world in ways that are virtually invisible to ordinary Americans.
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