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GOP Groups Launch $50-Million Ad Campaign for House Candidates
The ad offensive represents "the biggest spending blitz ever by such groups in a congressional election campaign," The Wall Street Journal reported.
Steven Law, who runs two of the GOP groups, American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS, told the newspaper the plan in the last few weeks of the election cycle is to push a few dozen Republicans "over the top by evening out the financial disparities and dramatically expanding the field of battle."
For example, the Journal reported that the group American Action Network has spent $1.5 million in Colorado to help Republican Ryan Frazier (pictured), who is taking on two-term Rep. Ed Perlmutter, a Democrat. As of July 21, Frazier had only $252,000 in the bank while Perlmutter had $1.3 million.
"Conventional wisdom was that Democrats would have a sizable financial advantage in the 2010 election -- that will not be the case," said American Action Network President Rob Collins.These GOP organizations certainly aren't hurting for cash. The Crossroads groups, founded by Karl Rove and other GOP strategists, said Wednesday they raised more than $13 million in the past week alone. Spokesman Jonathan Collegio told The Washington Post the two affiliates expect to bring in $65 million by Nov. 2, surpassing their initial goal of $52 million.
Collegio said his groups had so much money they would probably funnel some of it to Senate candidates as well.
This kind of infusion of cash into political campaigns was made possible by the Supreme Court's "Citizens United" decision earlier this year. The ruling allowed outside political groups to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence national elections, and they don't have to identify the sources of their funding.
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Karl Rove remember.."what goes around,comes around." You have brought in the 'Trojan Horse'.
October 14 2010 at 1:09 PM Report abuse Permalink +4 rate up rate down ReplyJohnblack I went on the the DOJ website and went to the freedom of information act and did not see an agency or commission that would allow information for campaign contributions. Please elaborate if you can. What I found was that you must submit a form and request information from a particular department, but I didn't find anything about campaign contributions. I did go to the FEC website and there was information available.
October 14 2010 at 12:31 PM Report abuse Permalink -1 rate up rate down ReplyI love it: foreigner George Soros can highjack an election with his millions, but it's somehow wrong or immoral for U.S. corporations to use their free speech rights to influence this year's election? Are you Dems kidding me? I suppose on your planet only the proper doctrinaire entities have the right to put their money where their mouth is? On my planet laws apply to everyone, whether they involve free speech or taxation, or any other part of the Bill of Rights. (Oh, and for JohnBlack: the Republicans cannot block anything in the Congress. They don't currently have the votes w/o Dem assistance--exactly the point of this Republican strategy, LOL.)
October 14 2010 at 12:22 PM Report abuse Permalink +3 rate up rate down ReplyIf the republicans are so great why do the states they represent and lead remain the poorest in the nation. These republican states, mainly in the south, also have the poorest health care and rank very low in quality of education.
October 14 2010 at 12:00 PM Report abuse Permalink -4 rate up rate down ReplyThe state with the lowest literacy rate is------New York
October 17 2010 at 8:22 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyUnion can donate as much as they want without any checks on where the money came from. They cannot and will not tell you where Obama's contributions came. Dems. were the first to use this little trick of hiding were contributions came from. Now that the supreme court gave reps the same chance to do it the dems are crying. Soro is now american but has given millions to dems for years. But that is ok for dems to get contributions from overseas. Attack and demonize is all that dems have left. They sure do not want to run on records or past preformance.
October 14 2010 at 6:25 AM Report abuse Permalink +3 rate up rate down ReplyHow much money has G. SOro and the unions have contributed to Dems? What about 2008 election? Did Obama had any boundling or contribution from overseas???
October 13 2010 at 10:35 PM Report abuse Permalink +2 rate up rate down Reply50 million dollars could create a lot of new jobs.
October 13 2010 at 7:50 PM Report abuse Permalink +10 rate up rate down ReplyIf the stimulis of 1 trillion "saved or created" 3 million jobs, the cost per job was $333,000. So $50,000,000 would only create 150 jobs if it was spent as "carefully" as the $1,000,000,000,000 spent in the stimulis. We need to get these clowns out of office and elect people that know how to create jobs.
October 14 2010 at 11:49 AM Report abuse Permalink +1 rate up rate down ReplyI DON'T watch regular TV channels because of all the political ads. The GIANT WASTE of money should shame both parties. How tough can the economy be if there's that kind of money floating around? Oh, that's right! It's the group at the top who need to get Repubs back in control so they can keep their money. Who's really behind all that Wall St. and mortgage company money being poured into those Repub coffers and how many jobs could have been created if they had "invested" it differently? Greed and no new ideas - same old, same old!!!
October 13 2010 at 7:45 PM Report abuse Permalink +2 rate up rate down ReplySo that's how it works.......the one with the most money wins? So much for intelligence in our government.
October 13 2010 at 7:01 PM Report abuse Permalink +9 rate up rate down ReplyThis is a very, very wise move. While House Dems have been spending (as usual) defending their go-nowhere agenda for America, the GOP saved huge campaign funds until the final 3-weeks.
October 13 2010 at 6:57 PM Report abuse Permalink +2 rate up rate down ReplyJohn as I stated before. This economy will go nowhere and unemployment will remain high . The only cure is for the house to go republican and the senate can go either way. Businesses are doing nothing and will continue to do nothing until their is a sense of balance in congress. This country has never had a thriving economy with democrats in control of both houses. Look back at the clinton first two years and what happened after that.
October 13 2010 at 7:28 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyJohn ... they do not need a plan they just have to control the legislation coming out of washington that could effect business profits. government can not pass any legislation that will get this economy on track. Problem is all the spending requires paying back. Where is that coming from and that is what business is worried about. What bill will this group pass next and how much will it cost my company. All costs have to be factored into the goods and services offered. If it causes my product to be priced out of market the only thing I can do is cut labor to offset those costs. Once people and businesses feel that government can do no more damage the economy and job market will heal itself.
October 14 2010 at 7:33 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply
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