The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law’s Ian Vandewalker wrote a great piece on modern money politics. Here is the key excerpt:

Are we seeing a resurgence of small donors? Are average Americans, newly engaged in politics, joining together to take ownership of elections back from the megadonors and super PACs?

We won’t know the answer until the dust settles on the 2018 cycle, but the early signs seem to urge caution. For one thing, big money and secret spending have been active in this year’s elections as well. In both Georgia and Montana, national parties and allied outside groups spent millions. The biggest outside spender, a super PAC called Congressional Leadership Fund with ties to House Speaker Paul Ryan, pumped $6 million into the Georgia race and $2.3 million into Montana. The group is funded by five- and six-figure donations from wealthy individuals, corporations, and “dark money” organizations that don’t reveal their donors.

Furthermore, the historical trend is clear: the portion of campaign spending in midterms coming from small contributions has been steadily decreasing for decades, while the share given by big donors has more than doubled in the last 20 years.

About the Brennan Center:

The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law is a nonpartisan law and policy institute that seeks to improve our systems of democracy and justice. We work to hold our political institutions and laws accountable to the twin American ideals of democracy and equal justice for all. The Center’s work ranges from voting rights to campaign finance reform, from ending mass incarceration to preserving Constitutional protection in the fight against terrorism. Part think tank, part advocacy group, part cutting-edge communications hub, we start with rigorous research. We craft innovative policies. And we fight for them — in Congress and the states, the courts, and in the court of public opinion.