Interest-group spending for midterm up fivefold from 2006; many sources secret
By T.W. Farnam and Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Interest groups are spending five times as much on the 2010 congressional elections as they did on the last midterms, and they are more secretive than ever about where that money is coming from.
The $80 million spent so far by groups outside the Democratic and Republican parties dwarfs the $16 million spent at this point for the 2006 midterms. In that election, the vast majority of money - more than 90 percent - was disclosed along with donors' identities. This year, that figure has fallen to less than half of the total, according to data analyzed by The Washington Post.
The trends amount to a spending frenzy conducted largely in the shadows.
The bulk of the money is being spent by conservatives, who have swamped their Democratic-aligned competition by a 7 to 1 ratio in recent weeks. The wave of spending is made possible in part by a series of Supreme Court rulings unleashing the ability of corporations and interest groups to spend money on politics. Conservative operatives also say they are riding the support of donors upset with Democratic policies they perceive as anti-business.
(More here.)
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Interest groups are spending five times as much on the 2010 congressional elections as they did on the last midterms, and they are more secretive than ever about where that money is coming from.
The $80 million spent so far by groups outside the Democratic and Republican parties dwarfs the $16 million spent at this point for the 2006 midterms. In that election, the vast majority of money - more than 90 percent - was disclosed along with donors' identities. This year, that figure has fallen to less than half of the total, according to data analyzed by The Washington Post.
The trends amount to a spending frenzy conducted largely in the shadows.
The bulk of the money is being spent by conservatives, who have swamped their Democratic-aligned competition by a 7 to 1 ratio in recent weeks. The wave of spending is made possible in part by a series of Supreme Court rulings unleashing the ability of corporations and interest groups to spend money on politics. Conservative operatives also say they are riding the support of donors upset with Democratic policies they perceive as anti-business.
(More here.)
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1 Comments:
I just wrote a piece on the MN Political Roundtable citing Norm Coleman’s desire to comply with the Feingold-McCain campaign finance reform law during his 2002 campaign even though it would not apply until after that election … and his demands that outside groups stop running negative ads in Minnesota during his 2008 campaign.
Gosh, I wonder what Norm Coleman is up to these days ?
The piece includes an ad attacking Russ Feingold for the increase in the national debt … never mentioning Feingold’s opposition to the Bush tax cuts and Iraq War.
So who paid for the ad ?
Some group called “American Action Network” … and who is the CEO of ANN ? Norm Colemen.
Gosh, my memory is not good how did Coleman vote on the Bush tax cuts and Iraq War ?
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