Welcome back to CBMG! Today’s post, The Senate is for Lovers Edition, profiles the independent expenditures for Tuesday, September 11th. On a day where both Mitt Romney and President Obama said they would refrain from airing negative campaign ads, the large “uncoordinated” Super PACs and 501(c)(4) organizations (who are unofficially tasked with going negative on the opposing candidate to deflect the stain from the official campaigns) were silent on the disclosure filing front. Two groups focused on congressional elections – Crossroads GPS and Freedom PAC – dominated the spending, accounting for 99.1% of the total disclosure amount. Crossroads GPS and Freedom PAC targeted key Senate races in four states: Florida, Nevada, Ohio and Virginia.
The Roundup: $3.57 million disclosed by 8 organizations attempting to influence 6 distinct federal elections
The Big Spender: After going largely silent during the previous two weeks, Crossroads GPS came back in a big way on Tuesday, dropping $2.5 million on TV ads opposing three vulnerable Democrat candidates for the Senate: Tim Kaine (VA), Sherrod Brown (OH) and Shelley Berkley (NV). Crossroads GPS, one of the titan voter influence organizations wielded by Karl Rove, has disclosed nearly $5.1 million in spending opposing Democrats for the Senate over the last three months. Tuesday’s other big spender, Freedom PAC, disclosed nearly $1 million supporting Floridian Connie Mack’s efforts to join the Senate. This marks the first big disclosure for Freedom PAC in this election cycle. Their two previous disclosures totalled $72.5K, also supporting Connie Mack.
Cashing In: Two behemoths of the election media – Crossroads Media and Mentzer Media – walked away with over 65% of the day’s spending, earning nearly $2.4 million for media-related services. We’ve profiled their profit-making in previous posts. Target Enterprises also made a tidy sum on Tuesday. Target made nearly $998K for a TV/cable placement supporting Connie Mack. Overall, Target has pocketed $2.37 million from prominent conservative groups Americans for Prosperity and Club for Growth Action among others.
House or Senate? 100% Senate. No disclosures targeted House elections on Tuesday. Senate-oriented spending eclipsed $3.5 million and, as stated above, this accounted for nearly all the day’s disclosures.
The Hotspot: Virginia. Collectively, Grossroads GPS and the Conservative Majority Fund disclosed nearly $1.08 million in the Old Dominion. Groups spent nearly as heavily three other states with in-play Senate seats – Ohio ($1.05 million), Florida ($998K) and Nevada ($425K).
The High Striker: The Republicans, in a landslide. Reps disclosed $3.56 million compared to a paltry $21.5K for the Dems. For every $1 spent by left-leaning groups, right-aligned groups dropped a gaudy $165.
And if you thought you day couldn’t get any better, take a gander at the detail in the CMBG disclosure summary table.
-
moneyocracy likes this
-
cantbuymegov posted this
