Interest groups are spending five times as much on midterm elections across the United States as they did in 2006, and they are being "more secretive than ever about where that money is coming from," The Washington Post revealed on Monday. The newspaper's analysis of "a spending frenzy conducted largely in the shadows," tracked $80 million spent so far by groups outside the major political parties. A Supreme Court ruling last January in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission voided strict limits that had been in place for decades on corporate cash in political campaigns. At the time of the 5-to-4 ruling, Sen. Bernie Sanders criticized the decision. He predicted it would give huge corporations unchecked influence on elections in the United States. 

Sanders voted on July 27 for legislation to undo some of the damage caused by the court ruling. A Republican filibuster, however, blocked the Senate from even debating the bill. The vote was 57 to 41, three short of the extraordinary 60-vote majority needed to stop a filibuster.

"Big money corporate interests - from Wall Street to oil giants and from drug companies to the military industrial complex - already dominate the political process in Washington. It is inconceivable to me that not one Republican voted to minimize the horrendous Supreme Court decision which will allow corporations to put unlimited funds into campaign advertising with no disclosure whatsoever," Sanders said at the time.