After pro-Republican groups took some big swipes with their independent expenditure credit cards on Wednesday, pro-Democrat outside money organizations went for their own shopping spree on Thursday. To put this into perspective, on a day where we look at the performance of our economy in September through the lens of the Department of Labor’s jobs report: We’re encouraged that there was enough economic activity to add 114,000 jobs, whilst private individuals, labor unions and companies spent a quarter of $1 billion on politics during the same time period. That disclosure figure equals roughly 9.4 million hours of work at the national average wage rate for the unemployed. CBMG has tweeted this in the past, but, speculative liquidity is not the problem.
But backing away slowly from the economics and looking again at the spending, aside from a few large presidential-focused expenditures, most of yesterday’s disclosures targeted House and Senate races. As we’ve said in previous recent posts, there has definitely been an increase in spending overall in the last few weeks, but the upward trend has levelled off somewhat of late. The daily disclosure of millions into the inferno of ad spending, however, is still shocking, even at these lower than ‘cash-o-mageddon’ levels.
The Roundup: $15.8 million disclosed by 30 groups targeting over 40 federal elections
The Big Spender: The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee disclosed $4.1 million opposing 8 Republican candidates for the Senate. DSCC purchased TV in Wisconsin, Indiana, Connecticut, Montana, Ohio, Virginia, Nevada and North Dakota. Pro-Obama super PAC, Priorities USA Action, spent the most cast on the presidential race - $3.3 million on TV ads opposing Mitt Romney.
Cashing In: Great American Media walked away with the balance of the DSCC’s disclosure. We’ve covered GAM’s indpendent expenditure earnings in previous posts. Three other big earners, Mundy Katowitz Media, Waterfront Strategies and Revolution Media, pocketed over $1 million each.
House or Senate? The Senate. Spending on the senate races outpaced both House and presidential disclosures. Groups disclosed a total of $7.2 million on contests for the upper house of Congress and just $4.5 million on the lower house. High-profile Senate races in battleground states continue to bathe in big time dollars. Josh Mandel was the popular prospective Senator at the dance, attracting over $1 million.
The Hot Spot: New York. Finally, after a steady stream of significant disclosures, the Empire State takes the top spot in this category. Elections in New York - primarily House elections - received $2.27 million on Thursday. Key districts targeted by the outside cash were: 1, 18, 21, 24, 25 and 27. Nearly all of the cash was pro-Republican.
The High Striker: The Democrats. Pro-Democrat groups disclosed $12.6 million compared to $3.2 million for pro-Republican counterparts. For every dollar disclosed by the Reps, the Dems spent $3.89.
Now that you’ve read the breakdown, check the detail in the complete summary table:
