Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right

by Jane Mayer

often adversity is a blessing in disguise and certainly the greatest character builder.

In 2006, only 2 percent of “outside” political spending came from “social welfare” groups that hid their donors. In 2010, this number rose to 40 percent, masking hundreds of millions of dollars.

The budget for Americans for Prosperity soared accordingly. In 2004, the budget for the Kochs’ flagship group and its foundation was $2 million. By 2008, it had grown to $15.2 million. And in 2010, it reached $40 million, engorged with funds from the Center to Protect Patient Rights.

In Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else, the journalist Chrystia Freeland describes how those with massive financial resources almost universally use them to secure policies beneficial to their interests, often at the expense of the less well-off.

The 100 biggest known donors in 2014 spent nearly as much money on behalf of their candidates as the 4.75 million people who contributed $200 or less. On their own, the top 100 known donors gave $323 million. And this was only the disclosed money. Once the millions of dollars in unlimited, undisclosed dark money were included, there was little doubt that an extraordinarily small and rich conservative clique had financially dominated everyone else.