It's About The Money, Stupid

[xoxoxoBruce]

An article at Salon about campaign finance . No surprise there every outlet runs through that regularly.
They talk about Congress critters spending more than half their time in office raising money. That's not news.
Then citizen's United, super PACs, and the big players. We know their names already.
After the usual fare, they get into some lesser know evils...

Super PAC money is disclosed. So when journalists and political pundits talk about “dark money,” don’t think of super PACs. Think of 501(c)(4) organizations, many of which appear to be set up principally to engage in politics.
Dubbed “social welfare organizations” by the IRS, 501(c)(4)s are tax-exempt groups that aren’t required to disclose where their money comes from—a significant fact when you consider that some of the more powerful groups spend tens of millions of dollars each election cycle to advance a single issue or candidate.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, “spending by organizations that do not disclose their donors has increased from less than $5.2 million in 2006 to well over $300 million in the 2012 presidential cycle and more than $174 million in the 2014 midterms.” The New York Times editorial page noted, mournfully, that the 2014 midterm elections were affected by “the greatest wave of secret, special-interest money ever raised in a congressional election.”

Hmm, a little end run around the people expressing outrage about super PACs and big buck manipulators
Lastly they touch on what I've been grousing about all along, fertilizing the grass roots.

State and local ballot measures attract some of the most deep-pocketed out-of-state business interests and individuals. In 2012, the amount that groups backing or opposing ballot measures raised approached $1 billion, an all-time high. In 2014, a mere fifty donors pumped $266 million into such efforts. More than three quarters of the donors were corporations.

Super PACs are also getting involved in city council and even school board elections across the country. A super PAC called the Committee for Economic Growth and Social Justice filed papers in Washington and promptly sent more than $150,000, funded largely by the bail bond industry, to unseat several members of a school board in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The PAC reportedly was launched by a state senator who wanted to kick his longtime rivals off the board.

Oh yeah, that sounds like the domain of Christie the bridge buffoon.
You heard it folks, the fucking school board. Do you even know who's on your local school board?
They're the itty bitty politicians who spend the vast majority of your local tax dollars.