"Pay no attention to the men behind the curtain!"
- paraphrase, The Wizard Of Oz
"Secrecy Shrouds ‘Super PAC’ Funds in Latest Filings" by NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and MICHAEL LUO, New York Times 2/1/2012
Excerpt
Newly disclosed details of the millions of dollars flowing into political groups are highlighting not just the scale of donations from corporation and unions but also the secrecy surrounding “super PACs” seeking to influence the presidential race.
Some of the money came from well-established concerns, like Alpha Natural Resources, one of the country’s largest coal companies, which is backing Republican-aligned American Crossroads, or from the Service Employees International Union, a powerful union allied with Democrats, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.
Some came from companies closely identified with prominent industrialists or financiers, like Contran, a mammoth holding company controlled by the Texas billionaire Harold Simmons, a patron of a number of conservative groups and candidates, and Blue Ridge Capital, a New York hedge fund founded by the wealthy investor John A. Griffin, a supporter of Mitt Romney.
But some checks came from sources obscured from public view, like a $250,000 contribution to a super PAC backing Mr. Romney from a company with a post office box for a headquarters and no known employees.
President Obama continues to out-raise all of the candidates seeking the Republican nomination by large margins when it comes to money that goes directly into campaign coffers. But the money race is increasingly focused on outside groups that are legally not allowed to coordinate directly with campaigns but pay for advertising and other activities that support particular candidates.
Most of the money disclosed this week went to independent groups supporting Republicans, giving them an enormous money advantage over similar Democratic groups in the first phase of the 2012 election cycle. Such donations were made possible by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in 2010 and subsequent court rulings, which opened the door to unlimited corporate and union contributions to political committees and made it possible to pool that money with unlimited contributions from wealthy individuals.
But the full scope of such giving is impossible to ascertain from federal campaign filings: Much of the money raised by the leading Republican and Democratic independent groups went into affiliated nonprofit organizations that are more restricted in how they can spend the money but do not have to disclose their donors.
"Who's Spending More: Candidates or Super PACs?" PBS Newshour 2/1/2012
Excerpt
GWEN IFILL (Newshour): New financial reports released last night show the role that independent outside groups, the super PACs, are playing. According to the Federal Elections Commission, pro-Romney groups raised more than $30 million by the end of last year. Those supporting Newt Gingrich raised more than $2 million.
And that doesn't include $10 million the former House speaker's super PAC received from a single wealthy Nevada couple in January. Groups supporting Ron Paul and Rick Santorum brought in a little over $2 million combined.
The super PACs grew out of a Supreme Court ruling in 2010 that lifted restrictions on corporate and union spending in federal elections.
The numbers are big: $40 million spent just by those outside super PACs so far. But candidates are also raising money the old-fashioned way -- Mitt Romney, $57 million, more than his closest competitors combined. That's Ron Paul at $26 million, Newt Gingrich at $13 million, and Rick Santorum at $2 million.
But President Obama had already -- has already raised $128 million for his reelection campaign by the Dec. 31 reporting deadline. And that's before the first primary votes were even cast.
For more now on how money has shaped the campaign so far, we turn to John Dunbar, managing editor of the Center for Public Integrity, which has been tracking the spending, and Eliza Newlin Carney, who covers this for Roll Call newspaper.
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