美国国家公共电台 NPR Democrats Want To End Dark Money, But First They Want To Use It

Democrats¹ Want To End Dark Money, But First They Want To Use It

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Last year's midterm elections marked a turning point in big-money politics. Liberals have overtaken conservatives in one type of so-called dark money - that is, money from secret donors² to tax-exempt³ groups that's spent on explicitly⁴ political messaging. At the same time, congressional Democrats are pushing to make these contributions transparent⁵, as NPR's Peter Overby reports.

PETER OVERBY, BYLINE⁶: Most of the best-known secret money groups are conservative - the National Rifle Association, Americans for Prosperity, Crossroads GPS and others. So how much do Democrats want to expose this kind of politicking⁷? H.R.1, which would force tax-exempt groups to disclose their big donors, was the first bill passed by the Democratic-majority House this year.

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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Congress is totally corrupt⁸.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Eighty-six percent of people agree.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) That means whoever you vote for, they're going to screw you over.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character) I feel totally helpless.

OVERBY: This pro-Democratic TV ad ran in the 2018 midterm elections.

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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #5: (As character) No suppression, no gerrymandering, no foreign influence...

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) What about dark money?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #5: (As character) No dark money. Full disclosure of donors and lobbyists.

OVERBY: The slam on dark money came from Future Majority, a tax-exempt group that uses dark money. It plans to spend $60 million in the 2020 elections. Conservatives embraced tax-exempt groups starting around the 2008 campaign. The Supreme⁹ Court's Citizens United ruling in 2010 made the groups more versatile¹⁰. Democrats have mostly scorned them. But Mark Riddle¹¹, director of Future Majority, is among the Democratic pragmatists.

MARK RIDDLE: I have no misgivings¹³. On election night in 2018, I didn't hear anybody go, oh, geez, we won. But gosh, wasn't all that stuff really bad that helped everybody win (laughter)?

OVERBY: Riddle said Future Majority will concentrate on messaging, branding and strategic advice, mostly in the Midwestern states.

RIDDLE: I think looking at the best tactics and the best words and the best images is going to be really, really important going against one of the great marketers in Donald Trump¹⁴.

OVERBY: But after that, he said, he'd rather not have secret money.

RIDDLE: I actually do believe that the House Bill 1 is, maybe, the most important piece of legislation that can be passed.

OVERBY: In the 2018 elections, the secret money groups spent about $150 million on explicitly political activities. That's according to a report by the government reform group, Issue One. It said about one-third of that spending was done by one group, Majority Forward, which mainly attacks Republican Senate candidates with ads like this one.

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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #6: (As character) Martha McSally is lying through her teeth. Dangerous lies with dire¹² consequences...

OVERBY: Issue One's Michael Beckel said researchers worked to identify the donors behind the groups.

MICHAEL BECKEL: We turned over every rock we could, and we could only identify about $2 of every $9 that these groups had raised.

OVERBY: But here's the long view. The political parties have been fighting over the same issue since the 1980s. It's how to get and use soft money - money that's exempt from the contribution limits and from the transparency of campaign finance laws. Sometimes a strategy starts with one party, sometimes with the other. Robin¹⁵ Kolodny is a political scientist at Temple University in Philadelphia. She studies the history of campaign finance.

ROBIN KOLODNY: One party stretches the law, gets away with it. And then the other party just goes ahead and does the same thing. And then eventually, the FEC will just say yeah, obviously. I guess this must be OK.

OVERBY: And now, this variety of secret money has taken root on both sides.

Peter Overby, NPR News, Washington.

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1 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 exempt   

adj.免除的；v.使免除；n.免税者，被免除义务者

参考例句：

• These goods are exempt from customs duties.这些货物免征关税。
• He is exempt from punishment about this thing.关于此事对他已免于处分。

4 explicitly   

ad.明确地，显然地

参考例句：

• The plan does not explicitly endorse the private ownership of land. 该计划没有明确地支持土地私有制。
• SARA amended section 113 to provide explicitly for a right to contribution. 《最高基金修正与再授权法案》修正了第123条，清楚地规定了分配权。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

5 transparent   

adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的

参考例句：

• The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明，可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
• The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 politicking   

n.政治活动，竞选活动v.从政( politic的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• A lot of politicking preceded the choice of the new director. 在选新领导人之前进行了大量的拉拢活动。 来自辞典例句
• This colleague is always politicking. 这位同僚总是忙于政治活动。 来自互联网

8 corrupt   

v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的

参考例句：

• The newspaper alleged the mayor's corrupt practices.那家报纸断言市长有舞弊行为。
• This judge is corrupt.这个法官贪污。

9 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

10 versatile   

adj.通用的，万用的；多才多艺的，多方面的

参考例句：

• A versatile person is often good at a number of different things.多才多艺的人通常擅长许多种不同的事情。
• He had been one of the game's most versatile athletes.他是这项运动中技术最全面的运动员之一。

11 riddle   

n.谜，谜语，粗筛；vt.解谜，给…出谜，筛，检查，鉴定，非难，充满于；vi.出谜

参考例句：

• The riddle couldn't be solved by the child.这个谜语孩子猜不出来。
• Her disappearance is a complete riddle.她的失踪完全是一个谜。

12 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。

13 misgivings   

n.疑虑，担忧，害怕；疑虑，担心，恐惧( misgiving的名词复数 )；疑惧

参考例句：

• I had grave misgivings about making the trip. 对于这次旅行我有过极大的顾虑。
• Don't be overtaken by misgivings and fear. Just go full stream ahead! 不要瞻前顾后， 畏首畏尾。甩开膀子干吧！ 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

14 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

15 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。