The Michigan primaries close in about and hour. The results are, obviously, not yet known. We can presume that most voters have already made their choices and cast their ballots.
As primaries go, this was fairly low key. The Republicans made it interesting by having five candidates with at least three being in a position to win. The Democrats had two candidates with close numbers in surveys. Advertising was generally directed at getting the message across... and saying how their opponents were less worthy for one reason or another. For the most part, you knew who was making what claims and they had to back up their claims, even if the truth did get stretched.
The one part of the advertising that really bothered me... bothers me... is the anonymous groups who give themselves public-service sounding titles and then go on to create wildly distorted pictures of candidates. One such group, Michigan Taxpayers Alert, appeared to have a pretty good amount of money to spend and did so without reservation or restraint.
Don't get me wrong. I think anyone should have the ability to say what they want and express their preferences among the candidates. What I don't like is that special interests can hide behind these public-service fronts and smear candidates from their positions of anonymity. That should change. Election laws should require that any group advertising on behalf of or against candidates must reveal who are the officers of that group and what groups have contributed more than the state maximum for an individual campaign contribution.
It is not in the interest of democracy to extend the freedom of speech principles to shadow groups.