Super PAC Spending in the 46th SD

In today’s Times Union, Jimmy Vielkind takes a close look at the multi-million dollar campaign for New York’s newly-created 46th Senate District:

It was the most expensive election held this year in the Capital Region, and, ironically enough, downstate donors hoping to reduce the influence of money in politics fueled it. While Tkaczyk’s campaign raised and spent $266,288, it was buttressed by more than $500,000 from two Super PACs boosting her support of taxpayer-financed elections.

That two Super PACs spent a lot of money on this race was previously reported. Jimmy follow up his article with a blog post in which he shared some of the research that the Friends of Democracy PAC relied on. It’s worth taking a look at.

As Jimmy points out in the quote above, there some irony in a Super PAC spending in support of campaign finance reform. (The spokesman for Republican candidate George Amedore, who was the target of their spending, prefers the term “hypocrisy.”)

A report released earlier this month by Public Citizen identifies a trend that the Friends of Democracy PAC seems to fall right into – outside spending has increased dramatically, and is beginning to rival the campaign spending of the candidates and political parties themselves. But, as Public Citizen notes, Super PACs “are less constrained in their messaging because they do not face the same level of accountability as candidates.”

With a clear trend toward more and more “independent” political spending, what does this mean for campaign finance reform in New York State? Is it more likely to happen, or if it does happen, will it give outside spenders an even greater ability to impact the outcome of races?