EDITORIAL: Rosen, Democrats hypocrites on dark money contributions

In January, U.S. Rep. Jacky Rosen blasted the ability of billionaires to put “unlimited amounts of dark money into our elections.” She stayed silent, however, when California billionaire Tom Steyer recently pledged to spend $2 million to help elect her to the Senate.

It wasn’t the first time her actions didn’t mesh with her rhetoric. Last August, she touted an endorsement from End Citizens United. In the 2010 case of Citizens United v. FEC, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down limits on independent political spending as a violation of the First Amendment. The court got it right, and liberals such as Rep. Rosen have spent the past eight years bemoaning big money in politics.

“I’m grateful to End Citizens United for their support, and I will be their partner in the fight against mega-donors flooding our elections with unlimited and unaccountable dark money,” said Rep. Rosen.

Just two days earlier, however, Rep. Rosen had put up two minutes of silent B-roll on her YouTube channel. The footage makes no sense as a commercial but is helpful to the very “dark money groups” Rep. Rosen claims to oppose. That term is usually used to describe nonpolitical organizations that run issue ads without disclosing their donors. Making the footage publicly available allows “dark money” organizations and super PACs, which must disclose donors, to use it in commercials.

It’s not just Rep. Rosen. Nevada’s Democratic Party has spent years wailing about spending by “billionaires like the Koch brothers” and other “dark money super PACs.” It also claimed the Koch brothers were “getting what they paid for” when they supported former Rep. Joe Heck in his 2016 Senate campaign.

Not a peep from Democrats, however, about Mr. Steyer and his big bankroll embracing Rep. Rosen. Mr. Steyer is an outspoken advocate for single-payer health care, California-style cap-and-trade and raising taxes. He also just spent $20 million trying to impeach President Donald Trump. Mr. Steyer has made his positions clear. Rep. Rosen has spent much of her short political career hedging on issues such as a single-payer health care system. According to the logic of Nevada Democrats, Ms. Steyer’s money must mean she embraces it.

Mr. Steyer is far from the only megadonor supporting Democrats. Billionaires Mike Bloomberg, George Soros and James Simons each contributed more than $20 million in 2016 to leftist causes and politicians. That’s their right. Yet those contributions didn’t garner a single objection from the Democratic outrage machine.

The best way to reduce the role of money in politics is to confine the federal government to its constitutional boundaries. Until then, expect Democrats such as Rep. Rosen to continue their hypocritical opposition to money in politics — unless they’re the beneficiaries.