Idaho's elections belong to Idaho voters — not to whoever can funnel the most money through a PAC without putting their name on it. In this past May's Republican primaries, political action committees spent more than $4.2 million shaping who gets to hold power in our state. Because our primaries are where Idaho elections are actually decided, that money effectively picked our representatives. And a significant chunk of it came from sources voters still can't trace. That's not competition — that's just whoever has the deepest pockets and the best lawyers winning before most people even pay attention.
This isn't about slowing down political speech. It's about basic accountability. When a corporation or out-of-state interest can pour money into an Idaho race through layers of PACs and nobody has to disclose the original source, voters lose the ability to evaluate who's actually backing a candidate. We can't make informed choices at the ballot box when the most important information is deliberately hidden from us. Idaho deserves disclosure rules with real teeth — ones that require PACs to name their actual donors, not just the shell organization one step up the chain.
I'm asking you to sponsor or co-sponsor legislation requiring full pass-through donor disclosure for any PAC spending in Idaho state elections, so that when dark money shows up in our races, Idahoans can see exactly who sent it.
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