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In one of the closest races in history, Mitt Romney won last night’s Iowa caucus, beating his closest opponent Rick Santorum by only 0.1% of the votes – that’s a margin of 8 votes. Ron Paul placed third, trailing Romney by a little over 3 percentage points. Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, and Michele Bachmann came in 4th, 5th, and 6th respectively. It is rumored that Rick Perry who is back in Texas to “assess his candidacy,” and Bachmann, who canceled her campaign trip to South Carolina, may be dropping out of the race. The Iowa caucus has set the tone for the rest of the GOP’s primary season, with barrages of attack ads flying in all directions. The ads were in large part funded by so-called Super-PACs, a new breed of political action committee that can funnel unlimited amounts of corporate and individual money into election races. It comes as no surprise then, that last night’s winner, Romney, was the top beneficiary of the Super-PACs, who can attribute their existence to the nearly two year old decision by the Supreme Court in the case Citizens United versus Federal Election Commission. The Citizen’s United decision has been pinpointed by campaign finance reform advocates as directly enabling corporate interests to ensure wins for business-friendly candidates. In explaining Romney’s win, the New York Times said his “business experience, which is the spine of his candidacy, was a draw for voters concerned about the economy.” Citizen’s United has faced mass grassroots opposition around the nation, with city councils and state legislatures passing resolutions asking the United States Congress to pass an amendment overturning it. New York’s City Council will vote today on such a resolution. LA’s City Council has already passed one. And, also today, a similar resolution will be introduced into the California Legislature. On January 21st, the second anniversary of the Supreme Court decision, a national day of action has been declared to build momentum to overturn Citizens United.

GUEST: Mark Hays, Senior Organizer with Public Citizen

Visit http://democracyisforpeople.org/ and www.united4thepeople.org for more information.