Time for the CBMG weekend update post for this Columbus Day Monday. Considering the general slow pace of weekend disclosures, October 6th and 7th were very active. A big set of disclosures by the National Republican Congressional Committee dominated the spending, accounting for 68% of the weekend total.
The largest individual disclosures focused on the race for the White House and four congressional races, 1 in Colorado’s 6th Congressional District and California Congressional Districts 7, 9 and 10. Mitt Romney was targeted by the pro-Obama super PAC, Priorities USA Action with $750K for an opposition media buy. The single largest disclosure focused on President Obama was $482K from the American Future Fund for opposition online advertisements.
The Roundup: $14.7 million disclosed by 20 groups seeking to influence over 50 federal elections.
The Big Spender: The National Republican Congressional Committee reported a monumental $10 million of disclosures to the FEC, nearly all negatively targeting Democratic candidates for the House. The four largest single expenditures made by the NRCC over the weekend opposed four Democrats: Colorado 6th Congressional District’s Joe Miklosi ($503K), Ami Bera ($502K), Jerry McNerney ($498K) and Jose Hernandez ($498K) from California’s 7th, 9th and 10th Districts respectively. NRCC is a big spender nearly every time they file expenditures and have disclosed over $37.7 million.
Cashing In: A large media player in the campaign finance world, National Media Research Planning & Placement walked away with the most cash over the weekend. NMRPP earned $8.9 million for media-related expenditures, mostly media buys, opposing Democratic candidates for federal office. With this payment, NMRPP will have pocketed $33 million during this election cycle.
House or Senate? The House. Groups disclosed over $10.8 million seeking to influence House elections compared to just $821K on Senate contests. As we mentioned above, the NRCC expenditures have accounted for most of the day’s spending and nearly all of the non-presidential disbursements
The Hot Spot: California. The Golden State, and its many congressional elections in 2012, received the most cash on a state-wide basis. Over the weekend groups disclosed over $2.2 million targeting California elections in 8 different Congressional Districts: 7th, 9th, 10th, 24th, 26th, 36th, 39th and 52nd.
The High Striker: The Republicans Pro-Republican groups disclosed $13.1 million compared to just $1.5 spent by pro-Democrats. It is easy math, but even without the massive NRCC expenditures, the Reps would have outspent the Dems of the weekend by a slim margin. Including all the dough, however, for every dollar spent by the Dems, the Reps disclosed $8.44!
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As usual, the disclosure summary table:
