Restore Our Future, the super PAC backing presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, spent more than $20 million on deceptive ads in early primary and caucus states, according to a just-released study by the Annenberg Public Policy Center. That figure includes more than $9 million in ads distorting the record of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is set to endorse Romney on Wednesday.
Relying on the spending estimates of commercial ad-tracking company Kantar Media CMAG and the content analysis of Annenberg's own FactCheck.org, the center calculates that outside groups spent a total of $41.1 million through ...
Continue readingGingrich super PAC backers pulled the plug before he did?
The latest news reports say that Newt Gingrich plans to drop his roller coaster of a presidential bid next week but Sunlight's Follow the Unlimited Money tracker suggests that the former House speaker's biggest money backers may already have pulled the plug.
Winning Our Future, the pro-Gingrich group that has been almost entirely funded by the family of gambling mogul Sheldon Adelson, made it's last independent expenditure almost a month ago in the Wisconsin primary, the tracker shows. That means the committee didn't play in Delaware, the state where Gingrich vowed to make his last stand ...
Continue readingLobbyist Proposal Leaves Loopholes for Stealth Lobbyists
The Washington Post reported yesterday on new lobbyist regulations being proposed by the American League of Lobbyists. According to the... View Article
Continue readingAdelson gives Gingrich a lifeline
In February, casino magnate and pro-Israel advocate Sheldon Adelson, along with his wife, Miriam, bet $5 million more on Newt Gingrich's flagging presidential bid by contributing to his super PAC, Winning our Future. This makes the couple the source of five out of six dollars raised by the super PAC since it launched late last year. Their daughter, Shelley, contributed another $500,000.
Gingrich has not been nearly as lucky with fundraising the traditional way. Paperwork filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission suggests that Newt 2012 is under water. Gingrich's campaign reported had $1.5 million in ...
Continue readingCitizens United Decision Could Lead to Foreign Interests Influencing US Elections
It should come as no surprise that the trigger for foreign contributions possibly finding an inroad into US elections is none other than the Citizens United decision.
Continue readingHow super PACs fared on Super Tuesday
We won't know how much the candidates poured into Super Tuesday races until they file disclosure forms with the Federal Election Commission next month but it's not too soon to take a look at the Super Tuesday scorecard for super PACs, using Sunlight's Super PAC tracker.
What our analysis found: In these races at least, the biggest spenders didn't always bring home winners.
Here's a look at some of the states that saw heavy super PAC spending and how it broke down.
OHIO
Biggest spender: Restore Our Future (Mitt Romney)
Winner: Mitt Romney
Continue readingOhio, Tennessee and Georgia see super PAC influx
Of the nearly $10.7 million dollars in super PAC spending dumped on the super Tuesday states over the last two weeks, three — Ohio, Tennessee and Georgia — account for nearly all of the spending and almost half of the available delegates.
According to Sunlight's super PAC tracker, the race for Ohio and its 66 delegates leads the spending spree with nearly $4.5 million, nearly half of all the super PAC money spent in the past two weeks on super Tuesday states. The biggest spender has been Restore Our Future, which supports former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. That super ...
Continue readingRestore our Future spends heavily in states going to the polls soon
The pro-Mitt Romney super PAC, Restore our Future, burned through $4 million in just three days this week on independent expenditures in half a dozen states with upcoming primaries. If it keeps up this rate, the super PAC would spend more than $16 million in the 12 days leading up to Super Tuesday, topping the total it spent in January.
Six states with primaries in the next two weeks--Arizona, Georgia, Ohio, Oklahoma, Michigan, and Tennessee--all saw a spending spike.
In Michigan, where voters go to the polls next week, the super PAC supporting Romney pummeled opponent Rick Santorum with more ...
Continue readingSuper PAC disclosures: Simmons hedges his bets; PayPal co-founder hearts Ron Paul
Monday was the day that super PACs on a monthly filing schedule file financial disclosure reports with the Federal Election Commission. Sunlight Foundation's Reporting Group is watching as they go online to see who is writing big checks. Highlights so far:
- American Crossroads, which put super PACs on the map in the last election cycle with mega-donations to GOP candidates, took in just over $5 million in January, almost all of it from one man: Harold Simmons, a major Republican donor who also has written checks to super PACs backing three of the party's presidential candidates.
- The super ...
Super PAC profile: Democratic governors play in presidential primary
DGA Action is a super PAC created by the Democratic Governors Association, but so far in this election cycle, all of its ads have been against Republican presidential candidates.
During January, the group placed a series of ads on Facebook and Google targeted to users in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida. Like bigger presidential super PACs, such as the pro-Mitt Romney Restore Our Future and the pro-Newt Gingrich Winning Our Future, DGA Action focused on the negative.
Its ads opposed Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. No ads were placed opposing Newt Gingrich, but that could change according ...
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