During the commercial breaks of the evening television newscasts, a seemingly unending stream of hit-piece advertisements are blaring across the screen about the candidates contesting for seats in Illinois' congressional races this fall. This isn't particularly new for the home stretch of an intense campaign season with so many critical posts up for grabs. What is new -- and disturbingly so -- is the exact source of the money paying for many of these commercials (it simply isn't known) and the limitations on the donations (following the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, for many groups paying for the ads, there are none). A veritable torrent of money that cannot be traced has washed over Illinois this fall.

The flood is especially noticeable in the race for U.S. Senate, where Democratic nominee Alexi Giannoulias and Republican nominee Mark Kirk are locked in a tight race. Mirroring national trends, it's the Kirk campaign that benefits the most from these outside organizations. According to the latest data compiled by the Sunlight Foundation, outside groups have spent more than $5.8 million against Giannoulias and some $5 million opposing Kirk; the candidates got more than $442,000 and $22,000 in supportive ads, respectively. 

Kirk is also a major beneficiary of what Sunlight calls "dark money." That means the campaign is getting help, through attack ads on Giannoulias, from organizations that don't list any of their donors. The biggest chunk of dark money paying for messages in the Senate race in Illinois this fall has been routed through Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, Karl Rove's new group. They've spent more than $3.4 million for television commercials hitting Giannoulias so far, most recently on October 19. Take a look at Rove's handiwork:

Crossroads, and other groups like it, have become a campaign issue in Illinois and elsewhere across the country. Giannoulias, like most Democrats, backs disclosure of the donors, and Kirk said he agrees in their most recent debate. Still, his Senate campaign is getting the bulk of the secret money this election cycle, and MoveOn.org is using that backing to tie the North Shore congressman to the companies that are presumably making those donations.

The group recently released a survey (PDF) that found 58 percent of likely Illinois voters were less inclined to vote for a candidate if they know that ads supporting that candidate are paid for by anonymous sources. Sixty-three percent of voters said they didn't think the anonymous groups running ads "hold the voters’ best interest in mind." SurveyUSA conducted the poll, which was based on interviews with 600 likely voters. And this week, MoveOn released this ad on the same theme:

Other outside groups hitting the state treasurer or blasting the North Shore congressman are required to list their donors. Those donating to American Crossroads, an affiliate with Crossroads GPS that has spent more than $1.1 million opposing Giannoulias this cycle, include corporate and oil and gas interests, among others. But of course it's impossible to know if any specific donors wanted to target the Illinois Senate race.

A variation on this problem can be seen in the state's gubernatorial race, as well. The Republican Governors Association, chaired by Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, is set up to raise an unlimited amount of campaign dollars, and has invested heavily in State Sen. Bill Brady's bid for the governor's mansion. Who's behind RGA? Recent donors include Bob Perry of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth fame ($4 million), News Corp. Rupert Murdoch ($1.25 million), as well as casino magnate Sheldon Adelson ($1 million). Six-hundred wealthy conservatives have given more than $25,000 each. But it's impossible to know which of these funds have helped Brady. Mark Brown, the Sun-Times columnist, picked up on this in his column yesterday:

The Brady campaign is running a variation on the "Russian doll" trick that has plagued this year's election cycle at the federal level. In this case, Brady duly reports all of the money donated or spent on his behalf by a group called RGA Illinois 2010 PAC, which in turn reports it got its money from the Republican Governors Association.

But if you want to know where the Republican Governors Association got the money in the first place, you run into a dead end that even the folks who do this for a living at the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform don't know how to penetrate.

I guess we're just supposed to assume it fell off the Republican money tree.

Underlying all this secretive money is, of course, the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, which, in the words of Justice Anthony Kennedy's majority opinion, rejected "the argument that political speech of corporations or other associations should be treated differently under the First Amendment simply because such associations are not 'natural persons.'"

Coming up with some way to rein in unlimited campaign spending, or at least provide some kind of sunshine on it, is the task for a future Congress. U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) said during an event earlier this week in Chicago that he was even working on an amendment to the Constitution to address the new campaign economy. Here's a clip of his comments to reporters about why corporate entities shouldn't be equated with humans, and thus not enjoy the same protections under the First Amendment:

Passing the DISCLOSE Act in the Senate would be a good place to start bringing some degree of accountability back to campaigns. The State Journal-Register recently called on Senate Republicans to lift their filibuster from the bill:

One remedy for the avalanche of anonymous attack ads is the DISCLOSE Act, which would require nonprofits like Crossroads GPS and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (which is covered by a different provision of the tax code) to disclose the names of the companies, organizations and individuals who fund them. The legislation has been approved by the House but was blocked in the Senate by a Republican filibuster; it could, and should, be revived in a postelection session. The DISCLOSE Act also would require the chief officers of corporations — and nonprofits such as Crossroads GPS — to appear in ads and take responsibility for them, just as candidates do for advertising sponsored by their campaigns.

For this election cycle, at least, corporations and unions and other groups will continue to dump as much money into political races as they're able. And the corporations appear to be the cash-rich groups right now. One expects the candidates they help elect to do their bidding on a policy level in Congress. Which, of course, isn't usually mentioned in the attack ads they are paying for.