In advance of the second anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, Delegate Sam Arora and many other Maryland state and congressional lawmakers joined activists today at the State House to call on the U.S. Congress to overturn the ruling and help make elections more democratic. The Citizens United decision opened the floodgates to corporate cash in elections by allowing corporations to spend unlimited sums from their treasuries to influence voters.

As part of today’s activities, members of the Maryland General Assembly launched a campaign to gather signatures from their colleagues on a letter to send to Congress calling for a constitutional amendment to reverse the Citizens United ruling. State Sen. Jamie Raskin (D-Montgomery County) initiated the drive.

The effect of the Supreme Court’s Jan. 21, 2010 ruling was evident in that year’s midterm congressional elections when campaign spending skyrocketed. We are once again seeing massive amounts of corporate money being funneled into the presidential primaries.

In the 2010 election cycle, the first since the Citizens United ruling, outside groups spent nearly $300 million. Super PACs have emerged, amassing huge amounts of money used for attack ads, such as those aired in Iowa by Restore Our Future, the Mitt Romney-supporting Super PAC, against Newt Gingrich. All this corporate money promises to help make this election record-setting.

The text of the letter signed by Delegate Arora and others is embedded below:

A Letter from Maryland Legislators to the U.S. Congress