Campaign Funds, Super Pac | featured news

'Super PAC' leaders profit from lack of oversight

Super PACs

Leaders of some of the new groups are taking advantage of the mammoth donations and the lack of oversight to write themselves big paychecks or hire their own companies. The Red White and Blue Fund, a "super PAC" backing the presidential bid of Republican Rick Santorum, paid more than half a million dollars last month to a newly formed direct mail firm.

 

How a Filthy Rich 196 People Will Buy Our Election

At a time when it’s become a cliché to say that Occupy Wall Street has changed the nation’s political conversation -- drawing long overdue attention to the struggles of the 99% -- electoral politics and the 2012 presidential election have become almost exclusively defined by the 1%. Or, to be more precise, the .0000063%. Those are the 196 individual donors who have provided nearly 80% of the money raised by super PACs in 2011 by giving $100,000 or more each.

 

Individuals, not corporations, drive super PAC financing

Super PACs, outside groups that can raise and spend unlimited corporate money to help elect or defeat candidates, have spent heavily to influence the presidential race. This chart shows the amounts raised in 2011 by some of the most active candidate-aligned super PACs and the cash they had remaining in the bank at the end of the year.

 

Is It Fair That One Candidate Has A Lot More Money to Spend Than The Other?

Restore Our Future Super PAC

Newt Gingrich lost the Florida primary to Mitt Romney, after initially leading in the polls after his South Carolina win. Gingrich’s numbers spiraled down soon afterwards. Romney had been favored to not just win in Floriday but also by a large margin, so his victory is not surprising.

I was reading two articles about the Florida primary outcome. One from LA Times and the other from the Washington Post. The thing that stuck out at me was how much more money Romney had to spent on television attack ads than Gingrich.

 

Jon Huntsman's dad floated super PAC $1.9 million

The super PAC supporting Jon Huntsman’s aborted presidential bid raised $2.7 million – $1.9 million of which came from his father. The group, Our Destiny PAC, was seen as an example of how a single donor could use the new breed of political group to float a cash-strapped candidacy.

 

'Super PACs' top $27.5M in spending

"Super PACs" have spent about $27.5 million to influence the presidential election, a good chunk coming from an independent group supporting GOP front-runner Mitt Romney.

 

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