Welcome back to CBMG for the daily breakdown of all independent expenditures. October started with the autumnal introduction of a new potential force in outside political spending and a bounce-back for Senate-focused disclosures. All in all, a busy day -for a Monday - in outside political disclosures.
The Roundup: $5.5 million disclosed by 29 different groups seeking to influence 24 federal elections.
The Big Spender: CitzenLink - formerly Focus on the Family Action - dropped the most cash on Monday, disclosing $1.2 million supporting Mitt Romney and GOP Senate hopefuls Josh Mandel (OH), George Allen (VA) ,Tommy Thompson (WI), Todd Akin (MO), Dean Heller (NV) and Denny Rehberg (R-MT). This set of disclosures mark the first independent expenditures for the FOTF-backed group. According to the wealth of knowledge that can be found at the Center for Response Politics, CitizenLink’s most recent exposure to outside political spending was $700K in the 2010 election cycle. Given the new election funding landscape, this initial expenditure from the repositioned FOTF group could be the first of many in the closing weeks of the election season.
Cashing In: The media company Majority Strategies pocketed a cool $785K from CitizenLink on Monday for providing direct mail campaigns supporting Mitt Romney in 8 states: Colorado, Iowa, Wisconsin, Virginia, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio and Florida. This set of payments brings their 2012 election cycle earnings to a modest $2.3 million.
House or Senate? The Senate. Groups disclosed over $2.3 million targeting Senate races and just $1 million on House contests.
The Hotspot: Illinois. The Land of Lincoln received relatively moderate attention from outside spending groups on Monday, attracting $608K in disclosures. Most of the spending ($546K) supported Republican House candidate for the 11th District, Judy Biggert. The remainder was split between a small anti-Mr.Obama disclosure and the House race in the 17th District between Cheri Bustos (D) and Robert Schilling (R). Coming in second was Virginia, with nearly $500K - all targeting the Senate election.
The High Striker: The Republicans. Pro-Republican groups disclosed over $3.8 million on Monday compared to only $1.6 million by the pro-Democrat groups. For every dollar spent by the Dems, the Republicans disclosed $2.3.
Remember, if you like what you read or if you think that more people should know how outside money is being spent to influence our elections, tell a friend about CBMG - or any of the other great sites out there focusing on campaign finances - and follow us on twitter.
As always, the complete disclosure summary table for October 1st.
