SHADOW GROUPS Have Spent Nearly A Quarter BILLION DOLLARS On 2010 Election

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" Karl Rove's American Crossroads has drawn a lot of attention for its high-profile fundraising and lavish spending on congressional races. But Rove's group, it turns out, isn't the only one at the plate. A detailed analysis of campaign spending by cloak-and-dagger "shadow groups" -- who are able to shift vast sums of money into campaign advertising and effect the outcome of competitive races -- show that the groups collectively have spent nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in the 2010 cycle.


It's no surprise that money has ruled the roost in American politics for years. But a recent Supreme Court decision, Citizens United, cleared the way for independent special interests groups to raise unlimited amounts of cash from companies, unions and individuals to run ads expressly supporting or opposing federal candidates for office.


So far this year, according to a report Wednesday from ABC News, more than 230 independent groups have shelled out at least $227 million in 2010 federal election spending.


"We're talking about a new kind of spending," said Taylor Lincoln of Public Citizen, told ABC News for a story Wednesday. "There are probably a lot of corporate spenders out there that, for fear for their reputation and a sense of what was right and the law of the land, didn't want to play that game. Now they don't have to fear any kind of legal retribution. That's a big deal."


ABC's Avni Patel cites, for example, the First Amendment Alliance, a shadowy group funded "largely by oil and gas interests:"

The First Amendment Alliance, funded largely by oil and gas interests, is one of the groups ramping up fundraising and spending this election cycle. In 2008, the group spent $120,000 on radio ads, and raised most of its money from three donors, according to filings.

This year, the Alliance has raised $1.4 million, with at least $1.1 million of those receipts coming from the oil and gas interests, according to an ABC News analysis of the group's filings to the IRS. More than a third of the industry cash has come directly from businesses, while the remaining contributions have come from individual contributions from industry executives and investors... In previous election cycles, the corporations had been constrained in making independent expenditures on ads that expressly advocated one candidate over another.



cont'

<http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/10/shadow-groups-spent-quarter-billion-dollars-2010-election/>


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[rfranklin]

1. But that is a pittance, when you consider the payback...

Billions upon billions in profit and bulging offshore accounts.