Outside Groups on the Right Flexed Muscles
By MICHAEL LUO and GRIFF PALMER
NYT
On the way to winning back the majority in the House on Tuesday, Republican challenger after Republican challenger overcame significant fund-raising gaps to beat their opponents, bolstered by a deluge of spending by independent groups.
They are arguably the most clear-cut examples of the impact that these Republican-oriented outside groups had on the midterm elections, spending record sums on dozens of races in the wake of a landmark Supreme Court ruling in January that eased restrictions on corporate political spending.
Most of these groups, which are able to take in contributions of unlimited size from individuals and corporations, do not have to disclose their donors. While it is hard to sort out the exact difference they made, their success rate, particularly in races in which Republican challengers would have otherwise been badly outgunned, raises the prospect that a relatively small number of deep-pocketed donors exerted an outsize influence on Tuesday’s results.
Democratic incumbents raised more than twice as much as their Republican opponents over all in three dozen House races The New York Times classified as competitive, yet Republicans won about half of those contests on Tuesday, according to a Times analysis. In all but a handful of those races in which fund-raising was lopsided, Republican outside groups significantly outspent Democratic ones.
(More here.)
NYT
On the way to winning back the majority in the House on Tuesday, Republican challenger after Republican challenger overcame significant fund-raising gaps to beat their opponents, bolstered by a deluge of spending by independent groups.
They are arguably the most clear-cut examples of the impact that these Republican-oriented outside groups had on the midterm elections, spending record sums on dozens of races in the wake of a landmark Supreme Court ruling in January that eased restrictions on corporate political spending.
Most of these groups, which are able to take in contributions of unlimited size from individuals and corporations, do not have to disclose their donors. While it is hard to sort out the exact difference they made, their success rate, particularly in races in which Republican challengers would have otherwise been badly outgunned, raises the prospect that a relatively small number of deep-pocketed donors exerted an outsize influence on Tuesday’s results.
Democratic incumbents raised more than twice as much as their Republican opponents over all in three dozen House races The New York Times classified as competitive, yet Republicans won about half of those contests on Tuesday, according to a Times analysis. In all but a handful of those races in which fund-raising was lopsided, Republican outside groups significantly outspent Democratic ones.
(More here.)
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1 Comments:
It isn’t just at the Congressional level, but also at the state legislature.
FYI : In Minnesota, the Republican House Caucus pumped money into 22 races … the amounts ranged from $20,760 (for an incumbent) to $32,800 … they won 21 contests.
Let’s consider David Bly in MN-HD-25B. Admittedly, his first contest required a recount … so it is not a total surprise that it would be close. Mr. Bly lost this time by 31 votes … Kelby Woodland received 8,898 votes which was supported by $32,800 (per filings with the MN Campaign Finance Board) from the Republican House Caucus. In addition, the Coalition of Minnesota Businesses spent $18,000 against Mr. Bly. Mr. Bly received 8,867 votes.
Combined that with the help of the Coalition of Minnesota Businesses (for example spending $31,000 to help Republican challenger Dan Fabian defeat Dave Olin in HD-01-A, or the $14,900 expended against Marsha Swails in (HD56-B) producing a win for Andrea Kieffer.) Plus there were other groups … such as Voices of Conservative Women which did two mailings in HD38-A resulting in the defeat of Sandy Masin and victory for Diane Anderson (who received $27,800 from the House Caucus) … and the Freedom Club State PAC which transffered $408,000 to the MNGOP. Some investments by these outside groups did not change the outcome … notably, the TakeBackMinnesota $30,000 expenditure for a television commercial against Terry Morrow (HD-23-A) which did not result in his defeat.
I suppose that the DFL also had expenditures, but in my rural area I did not receive any … heck I never even saw a lawn sign for the DFL candidate for my House District … but I did see plenty for the Republican incumbent and even at least a dozen for the Independence Party candidate.
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