The DISCLOSE Act was killed on the Senate floor today, failing to clear a Republican filibuster by just 7 votes. The bill would have required politicians to disclose anyone who donates more than $10,000. Center for American Progress Action Fund CEO Tom Perriello thinks the bill’s failure may have an unexpected effect: putting a Democrat in office.
Sen. Scott Brown is neck and neck with challenger Elizabeth Warren in the tight Massachusetts Senate race and according to Tom Perriello, GOP’s fundraising policies might be his downfall.
“I know there are a lot of working and middle class voters who may have been leaning Republican. When they’re seeing what’s happening here with folks writing hundred million dollar checks or hundred million dollar pledges, they know these folks don’t care a wit about the working and middle class,” he said on The Ed Show Monday night. “I think in a place like Massachusetts this could be a big factor.”
Perriello said that the money this bill will bring to GOP coffers isn’t enough to sway middle class voters.
“Someone who ran saying they want to clean up Washington, who then got a sweetheart deal from Wall Street speculators and then says they don’t want citizens to have the right to know who’s writing five-figure checks to politicians?” Perriello said. “I think the American people are smarter than that.” Brown voted against the act on Monday evening. Last week, he called the bill “a cynical political ploy masquerading as reform,” despite his own claims that outside voices have no role in a state race. Earlier in his campaign, Brown proposed and negotiated a “People’s Pledge” with Warren, banning third-part advertisers from advertising on their race. Brown has had to pay the first two of the self-imposed fines after outsiders advertised on his behalf. Brown’s campaign has responded to attempts to get him to vote for DISCLOSE by demanding more transparency from Warren over her academic record.
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