No, the Supreme Court wasn’t joking about Citizens United. A federal appeals court in New York affirmed that a conservative PAC can accept unlimited donations for Joe Lhota, the Republican candidate for New York City mayor. Lhota currently lags far behind Democratic frontrunner Bill de Blasio, and money is unlikely to buy him a victory. But the ruling was one of a string of decisions unshackling political groups from campaign finance restrictions, making New York the latest state to feel the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United case. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, known as a liberal crusader, blasted the ruling, saying that every New Yorker deserves the same vote. Lhota, meanwhile, said he had “nothing to do with that case,” and the PAC’s leader was unsure there would be many donors lining up.
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