{"id":40726,"date":"2025-04-01T13:02:56","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T20:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=40726"},"modified":"2025-04-01T13:02:57","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T20:02:57","slug":"this-is-the-state-of-american-democracy-sanders-calls-for-public-funding-of-elections-as-musk-buys-votes-with-1-million-checks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/04\/01\/this-is-the-state-of-american-democracy-sanders-calls-for-public-funding-of-elections-as-musk-buys-votes-with-1-million-checks\/","title":{"rendered":"‘This Is the State of American Democracy’: Sanders Calls for Public Funding of Elections as Musk Buys Votes With $1 Million Checks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\u200bElon<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Elon Musk gives a $1 million check made to the order of Nicholas Jacobs during a town hall in Green Bay, Wisconsin on March 30, 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Photo: Robin Legrand\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Independent groups spending on most expensive judicial race in U.S. history favor the right-wing Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

ELOISE GOLDSMITH<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mar 31, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the eve of what the nonpartisan law group the Brennan Center for Justice has deemed<\/a> the most expensive judicial race in American history, Sen. Bernie Sanders<\/a> of Vermont is calling out billionaire Elon Musk’s role in Tuesday’s Wisconsin Supreme Court race and demanding the country move to public funding in elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“So. This is the state of American democracy,” wrote<\/a> the Independent senator on X on Monday. “The richest guy in the world is handing out million dollar checks in order to win a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat and elect an anti-choice judge<\/a>.” In addition to being the richest person in the world, Musk is also a key figure in Republican President Donald Trump’s administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We MUST overturn Citizens United<\/a><\/em> and move to public funding of elections,” Sanders continued, referencing the 2010 Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. <\/em>That ruling stuck down existing limits on how much money a corporation can directly spend to support a political campaign, and has since enabled unlimited campaign spending by corporations and other outside groups\u2014including what are known as dark money<\/a> groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday, voters in Wisconsin will decide a contest<\/a> between Susan Crawford, a liberal Dane County judge, and former Republican attorney general and current Waukesha County Circuit Judge Brad Schimel, who are competing to fill the seat of retiring Justice Ann Walsh Bradley. The outcome of the race which will determine the ideological swing of the state’s highest court, which since 2023 has had a liberal majority<\/a> for the first time in over a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk’s super political action committee, America PAC<\/a>, has spent over $12 million on the race to benefit Schimel\u2014and another Musk-linked group, Building Americas Future, has spent nearly $6 million, according<\/a> to the Brennan Center. Total spending in the race tallies $90 million, with $40.3 million going toward Crawford and $49.7 million going toward Schimel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According<\/a> to the Brennan Center, “Independent groups like super PACs and nonprofits spending untraceable dark money favor Schimel by a much larger margin: $13.5 million benefiting Crawford compared with almost $35.5 million boosting Schimel.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk was also accused of bribing Wisconsin voters by circulating a petition<\/a> opposing “activist judges” through America PAC, and offering registered voters $1,000 if they sign the petition. Last week, Musk announced on social media that he would hold a rally on Sunday in Wisconsin and hand out $1 million checks<\/a> to two voters who had already cast their ballots. He then deleted that post and clarified that “entrance is limited to those who have signed the petition in opposition to activist judges,” adding, “I will also hand over checks for a million dollars to 2 people to be spokesmen for the petition,” according<\/a> to The New York Times.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, Wisconsin’s attorney general appealed<\/a> to the state Supreme Court to prevent Musk from using the giveaway tactic, but the court declined to hear the case Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk did hand out checks during a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin on Sunday. One of the recipients<\/a> was Nicholas Jacobs, the chair of the Wisconsin College Republicans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During a discussion on X that Musk hosted with Schimel and U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) on March 22, Musk\u00a0indicated<\/a>\u00a0that he has been keen to shape the race because the makeup of the court could threaten how the state’s current congressional districts are drawn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ELOISE GOLDSMITH<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eloise Goldsmith is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elon Musk gives a $1 million check made to the order of Nicholas Jacobs during a town hall in Green Bay, Wisconsin on March 30, 2025.  (Photo: Robin Legrand\/AFP via Getty Images) Independent groups spending on most expensive judicial race in U.S. history favor the right-wing Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate,… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40726"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40726"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40727,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40726\/revisions\/40727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}