Money & Politics

May 11, 2012

This Week in Dark Money – May 11, 2012

by Gavin Aronsen, Mother Jones

We’re proud to collaborate with Mother Jones in sharing insightful journalism related to money and politics. We’ll be posting this weekly roundup every Friday. Share your thoughts about these must-read stories and always feel free to suggest your own in the comments section.

A quick look at the week that was in the world of political dark money…

Hoosier (super PAC) daddy?: Tea party candidate Richard Mourdock unseated six-term Sen. Richard Lugar in this week’s Republican primary in Indiana, thanks in no small part to super PACs. As iWatch News’ Michael Beckel reports, pro-Mourdock groups spent even more than his campaign. Overall, Sunlight Foundation notes, the contest saw “the biggest outside money dump of any congressional race thus far.” At $2.2 million, the top outside spender was the antitax super PAC Club for Growth Action, which ran anti-Lugar ads like this:

Money & Politics

May 9, 2012

Political Ads: America Discovers Columbus

by Michael Winship

If you live in Columbus, Ohio, my sympathy.

Don’t get me wrong. Columbus is a wonderful town – the state capital, birthplace of the late great humorist James Thurber, location of Ohio State University and my brother Tim.

People gather at the state capitol building in Columbus, Ohio following a 2004 march sponsored by the Ohio Voter Protection Coalition. (AP Photo/Laura Rauch)

But if you’re a television viewer in Columbus you may be wishing about now that you could jump into your set and join the castaways on Survivor. According to the newspaper USA Today, “As the amount of money spent on political persuasion has risen, there are now some places where political ads are more like a steady rain. Here in Columbus, it is pouring.”

“Columbus draws a lot of political advertising because it’s the largest city in a big swing state that this year also has a heated Senate contest and congressional races reconfigured by redistricting. What’s different here is that when the campaigns end, the advertising keeps on going. Political ads are on the air in Columbus all the time.
“That’s great news for the local TV stations battered by a recession that torpedoed their commercial advertisers. ‘We’re on the other end saying, “Thank you.” We’re running around with a bushel basket trying to catch it when it falls,’ said Tom Griesdorn, general manager of WBNS-TV, the Columbus CBS affiliate.”

Money & Politics

May 4, 2012

And the Derby Winner Is… Campaign Cash!

by Michael Winship

At Churchill Downs in Louisville, KY. (AP / Al Behrman)

As a rule of thumb, we don’t cover politics as a horse race on this website, but with Saturday’s Kentucky Derby upon us — one of the few competitions where contestants have a legitimate right to behave like three-year-olds – we note this report from our colleagues at the Sunlight Foundation.

“The real money in the Kentucky Derby isn’t in the purse or the pari-mutuel, but in the politics,” Bill Allison writes. “Horse-focused PACs like the American Horse Council, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and horse breeders and owners have contributed more than $8.7 million to political candidates and parties since 1989 and spent $2.2 million more lobbying. And some of the top donors to these organizations are mega-donors in their own right, having contributed millions more to politicians, parties, PACs and super PACs.”

Money & Politics

May 4, 2012

This Week in Dark Money

by Gavin Aronsen, Mother Jones

A quick look at the week that was in the world of political dark money.

Can Obama be swift boated? That’s the idea behind this attack ad from Veterans for a Strong America, which slams the president for taking too much credit for Osama bin Laden’s death. The group’s founder tells Mother Jones‘ Adam Weinstein that he’s recruiting Navy SEALs to openly criticize Obama: “We’re gonna be rolling some of those folks out soon.” Want to know who’s funding the group? Sorry, it’s a 501(c)4, so it doesn’t have to reveal its donors or how much money it has.

Money & Politics

May 3, 2012

Majority of Super PAC Money Comes From Few States

by Theresa Riley

According to analysis by USA Today, a handful of rich donors in six states — Nevada, Wyoming, Arkansas, Texas, Utah and Oklahoma — and Washington, D.C., are fueling the 2012 election campaign. Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, notes in the report that the geographic breakdown is a function of where wealthy super PAC givers happen to live.

The concentration of political money in just a handful of states illustrates how the free-for-all spending of the 2012 election has changed the campaign fundraising map in ways not seen the post-Watergate laws imposed contribution limits. Outside spending already has topped $113 million in this election, more than four times the amount at this point in the 2008 campaign.
By contrast, three crucial presidential battlegrounds — Ohio, North Carolina and Pennsylvania — together account for less than 2% of all super PAC contributions. …
Individuals and organizations in the securities and investment industry have donated $31 million to super PACs, the most of any sector, Krumholz’s group found. Not surprisingly, New York, the nation’s financial center, emerges as the No. 4 city in super PAC donations in the USA Today analysis.”

Money & Politics

May 1, 2012

Major Super PACs Spent Big on Deceptive Ads

by Theresa Riley

According to a new report from the Annenberg Public Policy Center, four super PACs spent over half of their advertising budgets on deceptive ads in the Republican presidential primary. Spending estimates from Kantar Media CMAG and research by FactCheck.org reveals that 23.3 million (56.7%) of the 41.1 million dollars was spent on “19 ads containing deceptive or misleading claims.”

The study focused on the ad buys of four super PACs: “The Red White and Blue Fund,” “Winning Our Future,” “Restore Our Future,” (ROF) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). Romney’s super PAC, “Restore Our Future,” outspent the pro-Gingrich and pro-Santorum super PACs by a margin of 20 to 1. Those groups spent an estimated $2.5 million on deceptive ads attacking Mitt Romney.

Money & Politics

April 27, 2012

This Week in Dark Money

by Gavin Aronsen, Mother Jones

We’re proud to collaborate with Mother Jones in sharing insightful journalism related to money and politics. We’ll be posting this weekly roundup every Friday from this week going forward. Share your thoughts about these must-read stories and always feel free to suggest your own in the comments section.

A quick look at the week that was in the world of political dark money…

Americans turned off by super PACs: A new survey from the Brennan Center for Justice finds that 65 percent of respondents say they trust the government less since they feel super PACs have more power than the people. And 26 percent, particularly “communities of color, those with lower incomes, and individuals with less formal education,” say they’re less likely to vote this year because of it.

Money & Politics

April 27, 2012

FCC Votes to Require Broadcasters to Post Ad Data Online

by Theresa Riley and Michael Winship

In a major victory for transparency and truth in political advertising on the airwaves, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted this morning that TV broadcasters must post their public files, including political advertising data, online. The files, which will be accessible to everyone via the FCC’s website, will reveal the identities of the campaign committees, super PACs and nonprofit organizations spending millions of dollars on negative and misleading ads.

The new rule doesn’t go as far as some would like. For the first two years, the online requirement only applies to affiliates of the four major networks — ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC — in the top 50 markets. In this critical election period, this would exempt Spanish language stations and affiliates in some areas of battleground states that will no doubt be abuzz with political ads in the coming weeks and months.

Money & Politics

April 24, 2012

Senator McCaskill Takes on the Super PACs

by Lauren Feeney

screenshots from Senator Claire McCaskill's first 2012 campaign ad

Scenes from Sen. Claire McCaskill's first 2012 campaign ad

Senator Claire McCaskill’s first television ad in her bid for re-election fights back against a formidable opponent — super PACs.

Conservative super PACs such as Crossroads GPS — founded by Karl Rove and funded by undisclosed donors — have already spent more than $3 million on TV and radio ads in Missouri, a state that has swung to the right in the six years since McCaskill, a moderate Democrat, won her seat by less than 3 percentage points.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported over the weekend that the race for McCaskill’s seat is of national interest because it’s one of eight states with presumptive or opposing Senate candidates less than 5 percentage points apart in polling. The close race is attracting outside money to both parties’ campaign coffers.

BillBoard

April 20, 2012

Mother Jones: “It Takes Dark Money to Make Dark Money”

by Theresa Riley

In recent weeks, Bill’s been highlighting organizations fighting for transparency and disclosure involving the torrents of cash unleashed by Citizens United. Groups like Democracy 21, New America Foundation, ProPublica, the Campaign Legal Center and others are working hard to help people find out who’s behind the negative political ads hijacking our airwaves.

But what about those on the other side? Who’s hiding behind the curtain fighting to keep the status quo?

For part of the answer, don’t miss Andy Kroll’s excellent article on Mother Jones today that tracks some of the spending of Crossroads GPS, one of two conservative groups tied to Karl Rove. In 2011, GPS raised $76.8 million dollars. In addition to bankrolling negative ads attacking Obama or Democrats in local races, GPS has made multi-million-dollar payouts to likeminded groups such as Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform, the National Right to Life Committee and the less well-known Center for Individual Freedom. (More on them in a minute.)