First Corporate Campaign Ads Appear After Supreme Court's Citizens United Decision

A Texas company recently took out a political ad in several local newspapers, making it one of the first corporations to do so in the wake of a landmark Supreme Court ruling that lifted restrictions on corporate political spending.

The Texas Tribune reports that the company, KDR Development, paid for an ad against state Rep. Chuck Hopson, formerly a Democratic member of the state legislature who switched parties and ran in the Republican primary for re-election.

The ad headline reads: "Vote for a REAL Republican," and it challenges Hopson's Republican credentials. The sponsorship line at the bottom of the ad reads: "Political advertisement paid for by KDR Development, Inc." The ads ran in the Jacksonville Daily Progress, the Tyler Morning Telegram and the Panola Watchman, small newspaper in East Texas.

According to the Texas Tribune's Ross Ramsey:

The newspaper ads ran in Jacksonville and Tyler on the Sunday before the election and a week earlier in Panola, and they urged voters to choose anyone but Hopson. They were paid for by KDR Development Inc., a real estate company whose president, Republican Larry Durrett, lost to Hopson in 2006, when Hopson was still a Democrat. Durrett is also the president of Southern Multifoods, a Jacksonville-based company with dozens of franchised Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, A&W and Long John Silvers restaurants. The two companies are closely related, sharing addresses, officers and directors.

"I think we're on solid legal ground," Durrett said in an interview. "We checked it out every way from Sunday."

Durrett's effort to help defeat Hopson in the three-way GOP primary, however, was not successful -- Hopson won.

According to the interview in the Tribune, Durrett consulted lawyers before running the ads to be sure they were legal.

"My businesses do better under conservative people and not under people who aren't," he said, referring to his reason for buying the newspaper spot, according to the Tribune.

The Citizens United Supreme Court ruling gave corporations and labor unions the right to buy political advertisements. This type of corporate involvement had been prohibited since a 1990 Supreme Court ruling.

"With its ruling today, the Supreme Court has given a green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics," President Obama in a statement after the ruling. "It is a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans."

Comments

[msbluebells]

11:19 PM on 03/25/2010

This is a great talk concerning our human limitations around perception and cognition. It goes to show how easy it is to fool the smartest and just the average joe.

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_asks_are_we_in_control_of_our_own_decisions.html

[ilse]

06:28 PM on 03/24/2010

I am reposting someone elses comment below. Please sign.

Just finished signing the petition to boycott the Discovery Channel. There are so many other Alaskans more deserving to host a program showcasing Alaska than this partisan hack!

Discovery and Science Channel...the name really incompatible with such a dim.bulb

Please sign the petition!

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/21/boycott-the-discovery-channel-networks

[msbluebells]

08:32 PM on 03/24/2010

Calling ALL Americans. Democrats, Republican and Independents. Let's get our information straight up. No more manipulation by powerful self-interested entities. We have enough capital, we are smart enough... we can solve this problem! It just takes leadership and infrastructure. Think of Wikipedia, the best encyclopedia in the world made up by millions of voluntary writers and editors. We must create a mechanism that uses the power of the internet.... Think YouTube. I know there is an answer. Kiva.com allows me to loan money to entrepreneurs in developing countries. We hold the power of the vote! Let's use it. Like create visibility into all the moneyed interests affecting our politicians. Time has come for us to stand up, learn, dig for the facts. Help each other. I know that we can find a answer to this. There might be many answers. Lets get shareholders vote on any corporate funds of politics. Let's get transparency. If it is a amendment -- lets do that. But let's go all the way and get corporations out of politics. Maybe media companies should be stand alone and not merged into Large companies. I don't have the answer but together we can find the right answer. Go smart people!

[Michael Valentine]

03:25 PM on 03/24/2010

As bad as the Supreme Court decision is (and may I say it is horrid) at least it is now out there. Our government is for sale, let's have a constitutional amendment to remedy it.

[SeekWisdom]

04:17 PM on 03/24/2010

It's already in the works. See htttp://movetoamend.org for details

[caad4]

10:52 AM on 03/24/2010

Ooooh (low groan)...this really, truly frightens me. This is what will kill our nation...Sickening.

[General Public]

09:11 AM on 03/24/2010

This looks like a personal vendetta by Larry Durrett against Chuck Hopson. His "logic" that his businesses do better when his state legislator is more conservative does not make any sense whatsoever. He lost an election to the other guy and now wants revenge. Just like John McCain, who wants revenge against Barack Obama. That's what this is all about. All politics is personal. It isn't surprising, though, that the first people to take advantage of this new court ruling would be Republican business owners, since Republicans are the people who own most businesses. After all, the Republican party always supports corporations and opposes the interests of labor and consumers, so why wouldn't the business community support a party that is completely bought and paid for? Still, Larry Durrett lost an election to Chuck Hopson, and he seems like the type to hold a grudge. So by getting personal revenge and acting on behalf of his own right-wing ideology, he is killing 2 birds with one stone. If he spends enough money on this (and he can spend UNLIMITED money according to the Supreme Court), it just might work. And that's the problem.

[cwendt]

08:51 AM on 03/24/2010

Businesses do better under a Republican economy? Are we talking about the same economy that was destroyed by the Republicans, by 30 yrs of trickle down, voodoo, economics, de-regulation, destroyer of American manufacturing, (Clinton certainly helped with that one, Nafta, WTO, etc.), destroyer of the middle class, taking us from the largest creditor nation in the world to one of the largest debtor nations in the world. Is that the economy that he does better in?

[ainfl]

08:56 AM on 03/24/2010

first fan.

[General Public]

09:16 AM on 03/24/2010

Seconded.

[Tsar Bomba]

09:15 AM on 03/24/2010

The greatest political myth is that conservatives are good at economic planning. Another one is that conservatives can keep this Country safe.

[DevonTexas]

08:51 AM on 03/24/2010

My businesses do better under conservative people and not under people who aren't,"

Do people eat more fast food when the Reichwing Republicans are in control? Interesting.

[pjn14]

08:46 AM on 03/24/2010

gee what a surprise!!!!!!!!!
Congress and cronies are excluding themseves from their own health care program
GO FIGURE
Good for us not THEM?????????

[Lemmy]

08:48 AM on 03/24/2010

Enron accounting at it's finest - ten years of revenues, six years of expenses. Deficit neutral! Brilliant!

[golferman]

12:11 PM on 03/24/2010

It's a heck of a lot more solid than the 8 years of DS. I know you may of almost destroyed the nation but let's go ahead and do it your way again. NOT

And also there is no enron here, but you would really like to believe that. Your a reptard all you have to do is say until it becomes true in your mind and there it's true now.

[SpookyTwo]

08:56 AM on 03/24/2010

Libs just don't seem to "notice" things like that.

[VPN]

11:40 AM on 03/24/2010

You don't seem to notice that its the law of the land now, get over it and deal with it.

[Greg2000]

08:45 AM on 03/24/2010

I was listening to Bill Press on Sirius left with Dana Bash on his show. What a suck up! And we wonder why the right is more energized, more disciplined.

[pjn14]

08:42 AM on 03/24/2010

More lies by the Democrates about pre conditions for children

Full protection for children would not come until 2014, said Kate Cyrul, a spokeswoman for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, another panel that authored the legislation. That’s the same year when insurance companies could no longer deny coverage to any person on account of health problems.

[edified]

02:03 AM on 03/25/2010

“http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/3/19/847729/-Dont-ever,-ever-call-Barack-Obama-a-wimp.-%28Just-look-at-this!!%29

NO DISCRIMINATION AGAINST CHILDREN WITH PRE‐EXISTING CONDITIONS—Prohibits health insurers from denying coverage to children with pre‐existing conditions. Effective 6 months after enactment. (Beginning in 2014, this prohibition would apply to all persons.)

Just thought you might like to know. Calm down .....KILL THE FEAR

[SpookyTwo]

08:39 AM on 03/24/2010

Bribes and back-room deals to barely jam through a piece of bad legislation that needs a lot of fixing.

And these Dems are standing around congratulating each other and patting each other on the back (and elsewhere).

[johnr49]

12:38 PM on 03/24/2010

And exactly what in the way of health care reform did the Repubs accomplish when they controlled both houses of Congress and the presidency?

[savroD]

08:38 AM on 03/24/2010

I have made a lot of negative comments about Obama, this law, and the congress. I stick by what I have said; however, congratulations is due the president and the democrats for DOING SOMETHING.

I also adore watching the repewblicants self-destruct, big time.

Never thought I would see it, but it's glorious!

[chariotdrvr14]

08:38 AM on 03/24/2010

True. Businesses do do better under conservatives. Business ethics deteriorate, consumer and enviromental protections falter.
Balance is a good thing but allowing corporations extra leverage in deciding electoral outcomes just hastens our further descent into an corporate oligarchy.

[RomeoMD25]

08:17 AM on 03/24/2010

Health-care stocks led the stock market higher Monday after the U.S. House Sunday approved a historic health-care. The Dow’s pharmaceutical components strengthened, as drug makers are expected to profit from the expansion of health-care coverage. Merck rose 2.3%, while Pfizer climbed 1.5%. Hospital operator Tenet Healthcare rose 6.1%, while insurer Cigna gained 1.9% and Express Scripts, a pharmacy benefit manager, rose 2.1%. Pharmaceutical companies also climbed, with Eli Lilly up 1.3% and Bristol-Myers Squibb up 0.6%.

[IMSickOfAllOfEm]

07:43 AM on 03/24/2010

In Canada hate-speak is against the law.

In the US, persons who practice it are political celebrities, followed by masses of lemmings, defended by Rethuglician leaders, and now, through a partisan Supreme Court decision regarding corporate campaign ads, are given a huge financial advantage in getting their chosen-ones elected.

This, my friends, is a recipe for disaster.