Wednesday, August 15th, 2012
Stephan: This is the naked corruption that is attempting to subvert our democracy. Let me say this very clearly: It is absolutely essential that you vote and that you vote for Obama. It has nothing to do with his politics. The point is to demonstrate that the election cannot be bought. If Rightists like Sheldon Adelson, and the Koch brothers, as well as all those who are funding these conservative dark money operations, spend their hundreds of millions of dollars, and do not achieve their goal, I think they will be unlikely to do it again. People who live and die over profit don't like to be publicly humiliated -- as they will be -- by making bad investments. It is urgently important that these big money operations fail if our democracy is to survive. If they carry the day, the election in November will prove to them they can buy the process outright, and it is a cheap investment. What is a hundred million if it gives one the power to make hundreds of billions? There has never been an election like this one. We literally stand on the edge of a precipice, and what we do as individuals with our vote will determine every election that follows.
Its totals differ from actual spending reported to the Federal Election Commission in several ways. CMAG’s numbers reflect expenditures on broadcast TV ads, but not on ads aired on local cable or radio. They also exclude robo-calls and mailers that some groups must report to election officials. In some cases, however, CMAG’s estimates include TV ads that social-welfare nonprofits do not have to report to the FEC because of their content or the time frame in which they ran.
After the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in January 2010, which paved the way for unlimited corporate and union spending on federal elections, many predicted that super PACs would become the biggest vehicle for outside spending. Hundreds of super PACs soon sprang up, some of which paired up with c4s.
But it’s the sidekicks, the c4s, that have proved more muscular. Rove’s super PAC, American Crossroads, has spent an estimated $6.6 million on broadcast TV ads mentioning a candidate for president, CMAG data shows. Crossroads GPS has spent more than six times as much.
