Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Make a sustaining gift today to support local journalism!
0000017a-15d9-d736-a57f-17ff8ca00001NHPR began broadcasting in 1981, and in the intervening years has documented the the stories of New Hampshire. From policy makers in Concord, to residents around the state affected by those policies; from notable Granite Staters, to our ordinary neighbors with a good story, NHPR has produced compelling radio for New Hampshire, by New Hampshire. These stories are the components of the NHPR archives, and on this blog we'll dust off some old stories that are newly relevant, and even find some that were never broadcast. We hope to demonstrate how we've changed as a state by charting our narrative on a longer scale.

From The Archives: Campaign Financing

This week saw the fifth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s "Citizens United" decision. And with the anniversary of “Granny D” day (1/25/12) tomorrow, it seems an appropriate time to take stock.

This week, NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered each examined the repercussions since the Citizens United ruling, and NHPR’s Rick Ganleyspoke with Open Democracy Executive Director Daniel Weeks about the New Hampshire Rebellion, an organization that took up the torch from Doris “Granny D” Haddock.

So this week we pulled out of the archives a discussion about the SCOTUS decision on NHPR’s The Exchange that was broadcast shortly after the ruling was released in 2010.

Quick Primer

The justices – by a 5 to 4 majority – relaxed certain rules on how much companies, nonprofits and unions can spend on so-called “advocacy ads.” These are the messages you see all over television in the final days of an election – funded by groups outside a campaign.

The case originated from a conservative advocacy group called “Citizens United” which had wanted to distribute an anti-Hillary Clinton movie during the 2008 presidential primary,  but was told it could not, under current campaign finance law. The dispute went to SCOTUS, and “Citizens United” won.  

Joining Laura to discuss the decision was John Samples, Director of the Center for Representative Government at the Cato Institute; and Weeks, then President of Americans for Campaign Reform.

John Samples:

“One simple change: people could always run ads about politics and about the issues, now they can run ads around primaries and around general elections that mention a candidate for federal office. That is what McCain/Feingold made illegal and that was the part of McCain/Feingold that was struck down.”

Dan Weeks:

"The status quo before Citizens United was unsatisfactory. We need a really fundamental shift in our campaign finance laws."

Related Content

You make NHPR possible.

NHPR is nonprofit and independent. We rely on readers like you to support the local, national, and international coverage on this website. Your support makes this news available to everyone.

Give today. A monthly donation of $5 makes a real difference.