Letter to the editor: Make foreign influence in our elections illegal

The Supreme Court, with Citizens United, allowed U.S. corporations to spend unlimited money on elections. In doing so, the Supreme Court opened the door to two inevitabilities: Misleading ads everywhere and foreign influence in our elections.

Normally, foreigners can play no role at all in our elections, but big corporations owned in part by foreign billionaires or national funds controlled by foreign governments are able to call the CEO of a U.S. company and insist they spend company money to defeat or support a candidate. The CEO can do this by using dark money groups, hiding both the corporation’s and the foreigner’s role.

This is perfectly legal in Pennsylvania.

Elections should be for the people, by the people, and Westmoreland County’s own state Sen. Kim Ward can lead the way and make this illegal, as it should be. HB2433 has already passed the House in Harrisburg with a strong bipartisan vote, and just needs the Senate to vote on it. Success would mean prohibiting election spending by corporations with significant foreign ownership.

Ward, president pro tempore of the Senate, is the one who needs to allow this bill to be voted on. So far, she is silent.

Danny Westfall

Murrysville