(Image: Campaign finance via Shutterstock)The ruling opened the floodgates to fill campaign coffers with corporate cash and "enabled outside groups to run shadow campaigns for or against candidates of their choice," according to a new study that analyzes where the money has come from so far in 2012.

The landmark 2010 Supreme Court ruling that struck down longstanding prohibitions on corporate political spending now accounts for 78 percent of the $465 million spent thus far during the 2012 election cycle, according to a study conducted by the non-profit and non-partisan Sunlight Foundation.

The ruling ushered in a wave of outside campaign spending this year "in the form of 'independent expenditures' supporting or opposing political candidates by unions, corporations, trade associations, non-profit groups and super PACs," Sunlight's managing editor Kathy Kiely wrote in the report published Sunday.

About $365 million of the $465 million spent on campaigns this year can be directly traced to the High Court's decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the study says, nearly double of what was spent in 2010 immediately following the ruling.

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http://truth-out.org/news/item/11766-citizens-united-ruling-account...