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Hansjörg Wyss, a Swiss billionaire who’s “never felt the need to become an American,” is best known for routing hundreds of millions of dollars through the left’s dark-money network.
His goal? According to his sister: “(re)interpret the American Constitution in the light of progressive politics.”
His funding is on shaky legal ground — and he just added “twice-accused sexual harasser” to his résumé.
But the left has no problem accepting his foreign money to fund its pet projects — with a Democratic power player even going to court to ensure Wyss and other foreigners can influence American elections.
Marc Elias — the left’s leading dark-money lawyer, election denier and Hansjörg Wyss’ personal attorney — sued Kansas last month over a new law banning foreign meddling in state-ballot measures.
It’s the second time in less than a year Elias is suing to help groups that are, as the Associated Press put it, “steering” Wyss’ wealth “into the world of American politics and policy.”
Federal law has long made it illegal for foreigners to contribute to candidates, political parties and super PACs. (Though that didn’t stop Wyss in the past.)
But there’s a loophole: Neither federal law nor most states’ laws protect ballot-measure campaigns from foreign nationals’ meddling.
Ballot measures seldom get as much attention as contentious races for Congress and the presidency, but they are critically important: They’re a tool intended to allow citizens to vote directly on a state or local policy matter, either by collecting signatures to get the measure on the ballot or by getting lawmakers to place it on the ballot.
They can affect everything from tax rates to abortion laws, and foreign billionaires like Wyss are generally free to finance them.
This loophole is so absurd that foreign nationals can fund campaigns to rewrite the rules of the very elections they’re banned from influencing.
Such ballot campaigns are seeing more and more foreign funding — which is why states across the country are fighting to close the loophole.
Sixteen are taking legislative action on it this session; seven passed bills this year, and another did last year.
While Wyss bankrolls many organizations, the largest recipient of his wealth is the Sixteen Thirty Fund. Wyss has contributed almost $280 million to the Washington, DC-based group, and it’s turned around and spent $130 million on ballot-issue campaigns pushing a far-left agenda in 26 states.
Foreign meddling in American elections, be it from Sixteen Thirty Fund or China, must be stopped.
It’s a commonsense principle that only US citizens should vote, and only US citizens should be contributing to efforts that influence elections.
But Marc Elias, who was involved in commissioning the infamous Steele dossier and pretends to be against foreign meddling in elections, doesn’t think so.
Kansas enacted House Bill 2106 to close the loophole in its amendment campaigns, taking a firm stand against foreign nationals influencing its state constitution.
This law was necessary in part because almost $1.6 million in foreign-backed cash came into the state from the Sixteen Thirty Fund to help defeat an amendment to protect life in Kansas.
An overwhelming majority of Americans — 78% — believe foreign nationals should not be influencing state politics, but not Elias.
Elias is suing Kansas on behalf of Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, arguing that foreign nationals — including illegal immigrants — have a right to participate in policy making and shouldn’t be prohibited from donating to state ballot-issue campaigns, directly or indirectly.
But the greatest irony of all? KCF admitted in an important court filing that it’s funded by foreign nationals!
Because of this, the group will be prohibited from participating in future campaigns supporting or opposing constitutional amendments under Kansas’ new law.
This is exactly the kind of foreign interference HB 2106 was designed to prohibit and exactly why it passed the Kansas House overwhelmingly and the Senate unanimously.
Bans on foreign nationals contributing to ballot-issue campaigns are overwhelmingly popular. Wyoming, Indiana, Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri and Ohio have all passed bans on foreign funding within the last year.
As states vote to advance this popular legislation, Marc Elias is working overtime to guarantee foreign nationals the right to manipulate these critical campaigns.
Fortunately, a federal appeals court recently upheld a similar Ohio law that banned foreign contributors to ballot campaigns.
Only time will tell if the courts in the Kansas case will reach the same decision. Our democracy depends on it.
Caitlin Sutherland is Americans for Public Trust executive director. Jason Snead is Honest Elections Project executive director.