Why Billionaires May Not Be Able to Buy the 2016 Election - DailyFinance
Why Billionaires May Not Be Able to Buy the 2016 Election
Reuters
Jun 2nd 2015 10:26AM
Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP
Billionaire David Koch, along with brother Charles, has pledged $900 million to influence races in the 2016 elections.
By Emily Flitter
NEW YORK — Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has one; Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has one; even former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, considered a longshot for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, has a billionaire in his corner. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has two.
Campaign finance watchdog groups fear heavy spending by these ultra-rich Americans will warp the election — already expected to be the most money-soaked in history. The idea that billionaires can buy elections has taken root in the public imagination.
Those billionaires are now seeing small, early signs of a pushback. Whether these are the beginning of a new trend is far too soon to say, but polls show there is wider discontent about the perceived influence of big money in U.S. politics and a growing gulf between the country’s very rich and very poor.
These nascent rumblings — along with evidence that the super-rich are inefficient political spenders — raise questions about how effective billionaires will be in the 2016 elections.
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