I know this topic has been talked to death here, but I think there's something missing from the conversation. The message seems to be that all of this "outside money" is "new" money to the electoral process, when in reality it is likely to be money that would have been largely directed to the parties. Sure, the amounts seem astronomical, but more money is spent in each election
than in the previous one. So what would have been funneled to the parties is being spent by organizations with no disclosure obligations. Yes, disclosure has been talked to death here too, but the implication I keep reading from those on the left is that this is new money that would not otherwise be spent on the election but for the lack of disclosure serving as protection. Wouldn't it be a safer assumption that many people that would have contributed to the parties are now contributing to the CoC or other c4s? An interesting project after the election might be surveying the contribution records from the last few elections to see if there are any regular contributors that are missing in 2010.
I'm still new to this so I accept that I could be totally off!