UK Only Article:
standard article
Issue:
The brawl begins
Fly Title:
Political influence in America
Rubric:
A network of wealthy donors has a mission to push politics to the right
Main image:
20160130_BKP003_0.jpg
Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right. By Jane Mayer. Doubleday; 449 pages; $29.95
IN 1972 W. Clement Stone, a wealthy businessman, gave $2m to Richard Nixon’s presidential campaign. The cheque, worth $11.4m today, provoked outrage and led to calls for campaign-finance reform. How quaint history seems when compared with the momentous present. In 2016 a group of rich conservative donors will spend nearly $900m to influence the presidential and congressional elections. They avoid public scrutiny by funnelling money into a labyrinthine collection of foundations and anonymous political groups.
This secret system is the subject of “Dark Money”, an ambitious new book by Jane Mayer of the New Yorker. David and Charles Koch (pronounced ...
↧