Democracy is worth the price

We don't know how accurate predictions for today's election will be, but we will venture a guess that campaign finance reform will find its way off the back burner.

Thanks to a U.S. Supreme Court decision earlier this year, Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission, unions and corporations can make unlimited donations to federal campaign entities that operate independently of candidates.

It's probably no coincidence that we've reached the climax of the most expensive midterm election in history, $4 billion spent on campaigns. That's less than the $5.3 billion spent in the 2008 election, but far ahead of the 2000 presidential election, which saw $3.1 billion spent.

U.S. House and Senate candidates have spent $1.4 billion, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, with a lot of it coming, naturally enough, from the healthcare industry and Wall Street.

The trend seems to be true even in local elections, where the NRD campaign has been the most heavily advertised in recent history.

Liberal interests will decry the spending, pointing out that 63 percent of the healthcare contributions are going to Republicans, along with 67 percent of the money from Wall Street. Conservative groups are spending $2 for every $1 by outside liberal groups, the conservatives led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and outside Republican organizations.

We worry that the infusion of cash will be corrupting, of course, but note that elections are not always able to be bought.

Sheila Krumholz, who runs the Center for Responsive Politics, noted that the $4 billion spent on this year's campaign was enough to "run the city of Pittsburgh for two years, buy every resident of Topeka a nice used car ... or treat each and every American to a Big Mac and fries."

Despite the excesses, the basic question remains; how much are we willing to invest in our democratic process? It's certainly worth the price of a Big Mac and fries.