The looming battle to hem in dark money

A battle over dark money is brewing in Hawaii and Montana
Organizers see political and legal battles ahead for a novel solution to America’s campaign finance fiasco

By Russell Payne
Staff Reporter
Published May 28, 2026 6:30AM (EDT)


(Salon) Political spending that is funneled into elections from a variety of nonprofits is known as dark money — and unlike campaign spending or the money deployed by PACs and super PACs, these sources are not required to disclose their donors. Following the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which created the country’s current election spending landscape, this has ramped up dramatically, with the 2024 election seeing a record $1.9 billion in dark money spending, nearly double the $1 billion spent in 2020. Now, some campaign finance reformers think they’ve found a state-level reform that can rein in this spending.

Now, campaign finance reformers think they’ve found a solution, and it’s already in place in Hawaii.

A newly enacted corporate law, SB 2471, changes the powers that corporations, or other artificial persons like nonprofits, are granted by the state of Hawaii. In the United States, states grant artificial persons powers as part of an agreement that allows those artificial persons to operate in the state. SB 2471 works by changing the powers that Hawaii grants these entities to disallow them from spending on politics at all.

Tom Moore, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and former chief of staff to Federal Election Commission commissioner Ellen Weintraub, told Salon that the law operates upstream of Citizens United by dealing with the powers granted to corporations and other artificial persons, rather than trying to regulate what they can and cannot do with those powers. .....................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/05/28/a-battle-over-dark-money-is-brewing-in-hawaii-and-montana/