A recent ruling by the Supremes granting unprecedented rights to corporations to wield influence through campaign donations has drawn widespread ire, most notably by President Obama during his State of the Union address.
In a brilliant piece of satire, a small, Maryland based PR firm is taking the next logical step. A campaign is afoot to get a corporation elected to the 8th Congressional District seat in Maryland. Of course, Murray Hill Inc. is running as a Republican, vying for the seat of Rep. Chris Van Hollen, Democrat. Murray Hill’s campaign manager William Klein explains to the Washington Post :
The firm “wanted to run as a Republican because we feel the Republican Party is more receptive to our basic message that corporations are people, too,” Klein said, adding that his client has no particular beef with Van Hollen.
A bit on the campaign’s official website makes a case for corporations in Congress:
Until now, corporations only influenced politics with high-paid lobbyists and backroom deals. But today, thanks to an enlightened Supreme Court, corporations now have all the rights the founding fathers meant for us. It was their dream to build the best democracy money can buy.
That’s why Murray Hill Incorporated is taking democracy’s next step — running for Congress. Join us and build a vision for the future we can all be proud of. Vote Murray Hill Incorporated for Congress!
You can watch Murray Hill’s campaign ad below- what do you think? Is this going too far or is it a necessary commentary on the undue influence of corporations over legislation? (If it’s the latter, you can also join a Facebook group supporting Murray Hill .)
