The Senate today killed progress on a measure to amend the U.S. Constitution to correct the tidal wave of political spending opened by the U.S. Supreme Court in Citizens United.

The vote was 54-42 for the measure, short of the 60 necessary to win passage in the Senate.

Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor voted for the measure. Republican Dr. No Boozman voted, naturally, no. The outcome was never in doubt. Republicans don’t want limits on corporate or any other spending on political races. Democrats had hoped to use the vote as a campaign issued, tied to the hundreds of millions being spent by the Koch brothers and Arkansas to buy elective office from the grassroots up, particularly including Tom Cotton’s run for Senate against Mark Pryor.

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