Official photo of the U.S. Senate. Source: Wikipedia.
On Monday, the unthinkable occurred—Senate Republicans did NOT filibuster a crucial piece of legislation.
The U.S. Senate voted 79-18 to advance a constitutional amendment repealing Citizens United—with an up-or-down vote scheduled for tomorrow: Thursday, September 11.
We have built a strong grassroots campaign for this moment to happen. More than 500,000 people have signed one of several Daily Kos petitions in the past few months calling to overturn Citizens United—and over 3 million people have taken action within our coalition.
In anticipation of Monday’s vote, over 12,000 Daily Kos members sent personalized emails to their senators last week—rather than sign the form letters we typically ask you to do. As we explained, 10,000 personal emails are more effective than a petition with 100,000 signatures.
This may have been why Senate obstructionists like Mitch McConnell (who back in the 1990’s was dubbed the “Darth Vader of campaign finance reform”) realized that they could not simply pull a filibuster on Monday—sweeping the issue under a rug like they do so often.
Now, we need your help once again—for the final stretch. Even if you have taken action before, please send another personalized email to your U.S. Senators, urging them to vote YES on Senate Joint Resolution 19 this Thursday?
Overturning
Citizens United will be one of the last votes the Senate takes before they adjourn for campaign season—when the Koch brothers and other billionaires flood the airwaves with deceptive ads.
Even if we don’t prevail, it is crucial that we put every single senator on record before they go back to their home states to campaign for re-election.
Mitch McConnell will certainly vote “no,” and will then be the recipient of Koch brothers largesse as he runs for re-election in Kentucky. North Carolina Senator Kay Hagan has been on the receiving end of months of attack ads—her “yes” vote will be a potent campaign issue.
And the public is behind us on this. Eighty percent oppose the Citizens United decision, including 72% of registered Republicans—and 56% who identify “strongly” with the Tea Party.
That’s why our opponents are running scared. Texas Senator Ted Cruz has even tried to argue that stopping special interests from pouring billions into campaign coffers would endanger TV shows like “Saturday Night Live.”
Never mind that the one senator who was a former SNL cast member has a different take, and will be voting “yes” tomorrow:
On the one hand, we can continue to let Citizens United be the law of the land. We can perpetuate the fallacy that corporations have a constitutional right to flood our elections with undisclosed money; we can let deep-pocketed special interests buy influence and access – and then set the agenda for the rest of the country.
Or, we can say, enough is enough. We can restore the law to what it was before Citizens United was decided – and, more to the point, we can restore a voice for millions upon millions of everyday Americans who want nothing more than to see their government represent them.
Half the Senate is
already on our side. 50 senators, all Democrats and the two independents, have pledged to vote “yes” to overturn
Citizens United.
But we need the five remaining Democrats (Mary Landrieu, Mark Pryor, Joe Donnelly, Tim Kaine & Mark Warner) to get on board, as well as any additional Senate Republicans who are willing to join us.
This is a big ask. It is not just clicking a couple buttons or signing your name to a form letter.
We need you to take five minutes from your day to write a personalized email to one or both of your senators, telling them why you believe we need a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and otherwise get money out of our elections.