Until now, allegations surrounding Jose Susumo Azano Matsura, the owner of multiple construction companies in Mexico, have not spread beyond local news outlets in San Diego, where he's accused of bankrolling a handful of southern California candidates. But the scandal is beginning to attract national interest as it ensnares a U.S. congressman, a Washington, D.C.-based campaign firm and the legacy of one of the most important Supreme Court decisions in a generation. How could this happen? Well, there's one big change in campaign finance law that made it possible: "Before Citizens United, in order for a foreign national to try and do this, they'd have to set up a pretty complex system of shell corporations," said Brett Kappel, a campaign finance expert at the law firm Arent Fox. "And even then, there were dollar limits in place. After Citizens United, there are no limits on independent expenditures."
Money is not speech. Corporations are not people. Now, if only we could convince the Supreme Court of these simple facts. (Mitt Romney can think whatever he wants, at his safe romove from the levers of power)
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