By MARLENE K. SCHWALIE
Santa Fe

Despite a CD3 candidate’s convoluted efforts to keep voters in the dark, dark money is NEVER OK.

OpenSecrets defines dark money as “political spending meant to influence the decision of a voter, where the donor is not disclosed and the source of the money is unknown”, regardless of whether the ad is scathing or glowing.

DM is not to be conflated with independent expenditures from groups with known agendas who have endorsed a candidate. Even corporate PACs have some degree of transparency.

A candidate doesn’t get to selectively decide that dark money is bad when it’s ugly but OK when beneficial. I expect consistency in the candidate who will get my vote for CD3 – NOT convenience.

And I wonder: where are the leaders of the county and State Democratic party on a value that used to define us – keeping dark money out of politics?