Republicans Plan $1 Billion Push to Win White House and Congress
The Politico reports that Republican Super PACs plan to spend $1 billion during campaign 2012 to take back the White House and the Congress, an effort which will include a specially focused operation by the Koch brothers, and if the GOPers reach their goals they’ll outspend the Democrats two to one:
Republican super PACs and other outside groups shaped by a loose network of prominent conservatives – including Karl Rove, the Koch brothers and Tom Donohue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – plan to spend roughly $1 billion on November’s elections for the White House and control of Congress, according to officials familiar with the groups’ internal operations.
That total includes previously undisclosed plans for newly aggressive spending by the Koch brothers, who are steering funding to build sophisticated, county-by-county operations in key states. POLITICO has learned that Koch-related organizations plan to spend about $400 million ahead of the 2012 elections – twice what they had been expected to commit.
Just the spending linked to the Koch network is more than the $370 million that John McCain raised for his entire presidential campaign four years ago. And the $1 billion total surpasses the $750 million that Barack Obama, one of the most prolific fundraisers ever, collected for his 2008 campaign.
Many other reports have noted that there seems to be an enthusiasm gap: Democrats can’t get as many wealthy Democrats to give their all financially for their 2012 campaign efforts. Not on the GOP side:
“The intensity on the right is white-hot,” said Steven Law, president of American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS. “We just can’t leave anything in the locker room. And there is a greater willingness to cooperate and share information among outside groups on the center-right.”
In targeted states, the groups’ activities will include TV, radio and digital advertising; voter-turnout work; mail and phone appeals; and absentee- and early-ballot drives.
The $1 billion in outside money is in addition to the traditional party apparatus – the Romney campaign and the Republican National Committee – which together intend to raise at least $800 million.
The Republican financial plans are unlike anything seen before in American politics. If the GOP groups hit their targets, they likely could outspend their liberal adversaries by at least two-to-one, according to officials involved in the budgeting for outside groups on the right and left.
By contrast, Priorities USA Action, the super PAC supporting President Barack Obama’s reelection, has struggled to raise money, and now hopes to spend about $100 million. Obama’s initial reluctance to embrace such groups constrained fundraising on the Democratic side, which is now trying to make up for lost time.
And First Read notes that the campaign is currently being fought largely on Republican turf:
What do this week’s 10 hottest advertising markets (from May 28 to June 4) in the presidential contest tell us? The race is still being fought on GOP turf — all states that George W. Bush carried in 2004 (and three that John Kerry never contested). Six of the top 10 advertising markets are in North Carolina and Virginia, according to NBC/SMG Delta. (Still don’t think that North Carolina is a true battleground?) The other four markets are in Colorado, Ohio, and Iowa. The New York Times confirms that Team Romney has placed “a priority on winning Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia,” plus one more. Come October, if the major battlegrounds are only those first four states, then that will be very good news for Team Obama. But if you start seeing Pennsylvania or Michigan added to this list, then you know the worm has turned. Here are the top 10 advertising markets (in advertising points):
1. Norfolk-Portsmouth (Obama/1500, Romney/1400, Crossroads/730, Priorities/450)
2. Roanoke-Lynchburg (Obama/1500, Romney/1500, Crossroads/750)
3. Greensboro-High Point (Romney/1400, Obama/1100, Crossroads/780)
4. Columbus, OH (Romney/1400, Obama/1000, Crossroads/525, Priorities/365)
5. Raleigh-Durham (Obama/1200, Romney/1100, Crossroads/840)
6. Richmond-Petersburg (Obama/1100, Romney/1100, Crossroads/340, Priorities/315)
7. Cedar Rapids (Obama/1300, Romney/1100, Crossroads/340)
8. Charlotte (Romney/1200, Obama/1000, Crossroads/515)
9. Cincinnati (Romney/1200, Obama/1000, Crossroads/460)
10. Colorado Springs (Obama/1400, Crossroads/630, Priorities/420)
If huge campaign coffers and the performance of the economy are major factors in who’ll become President, then what does it say about the Democrats’ challenges this campaign season?
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I can comment about NC. The unemployment rate has decreased somewhere around one point, but the number of jobs has not increased in the same numbers. Much of the decrease in the unemployment rate is the removal of individuals from the ranks of unemployed due to benefits running out and people that have given up looking for work.
In addition, the democrats in the governors office and legislature keep harping on increasing taxes to fund programs, thus leading to a republican takeove of the legislature for the first time in many moons. The governor is so unpopular that she has decided not to run again. Some say with proding from the NC Dem. Party leadership. The demcrat candidate is not viewed as a strong candidate which could lead to a reduced turnout.
So yes, NC is in the tossup states leaning right.
But what the heck, best government money can buy!
Holy cow, a billion dollars! That’s as much as Americans are about to spend on fireworks. That’s $3.33 for every person in the country.
I don’t know what the right amount is to spend on a presidential election. But I believe it’s an important decision, as witnessed by the hours and hours bloggers pour into writing on it. I suspect it’s worth more than the price of a latte.
But George Will has assured us that all the spending will cancel out and we can proceed uninterrupted with our current level of life. If the Republicans win all three branches of government, it will be because that’s what the voters wanted. The money spent is an unimportant part of the persuasive voice of the winners. In other words, if the Democrats are persuasive enough, the money spent is immaterial. The same theory applies to legislation. If the law is good the money spent lobbying against it is immaterial.
It might be instructive to consider the “cornered animal” syndrome as applies to the current population. From Wicki:
“In the human fight or flight response in prehistoric times, fight was manifested in aggressive, combative behavior and flight was manifested by fleeing potentially threatening situations, such as being confronted by a predator (my emphasis). In current times, these responses persist, but fight and flight responses have assumed a wider range of behaviors. For example, the fight response may be manifested in angry, argumentative behavior, and the flight response may be manifested through social withdrawal, substance abuse, and even television viewing.”
Pretty disgusting, no thanks to SCOTUS and the CU “decision”.
Instead of the long-long primary circus, why not just hold a giant fund raiser where the party posts its candidate and the one raising the most gets the presidency. No speeches or debates, just ads for the funds. Oh, and make it short, say three months, so the incumbent president and other candidates with actual government jobs, have a better chance of getting some work done.
Gives a new meaning to “Buy American”.
How about we eBay for president. Americans literally vote with money. We can just remove the middle man and save all that advertising. We all just bid x amount of dollars for the candidate we like and add it up. Highest bid gets the job. How, refreshing that would be once all the pretense is dropped.
They have a return policy at ebay that would help if we don’t like the winner after say a year.
All joking aside, what can we do? When I heard Obama was going to raise $1 Billion, I thought it was nuts. Now the Republicans are matching it. Where does it end? If it works, a few very, very rich people will be able to decide who governs the millions of Americans who don’t have gobs of money to throw at a candidate.
How on earth will we ever get out of this mess? I’ve said for years there’s too much money in politics and political races. Now it’s campaign funds on speed.
It’s all pretty insane. If the GOP/TP gains control in November I suppose they can pick up where they left off and finish ruining what is left of the country. As for the voters? The clueless lot can continue watching TV, filling their faces, and letting their minds swim with nonsense while the USA crumbles around them. When they start feeling enough pain, start realizing all their privacy rights are gone, see the safety nets dismantled, regulations ignored, see thier children facing no worthwhile prospects for a decent future, etc. than maybe they’ll get up on their hind legs – but it will be too late. I’m just glad I won’t be around to see it.
Its gonna be 1929 all over again. We’ve dismantled the New Deal policies and protections because they worked so well we thought we didn’t need them anymore. So the lessons will have to be relearned the only way you can get through to stupid short sighted people, the hard way.
Hey, Slam, tell Obama to reinstate Glass-Steagall.
dduck, I second that. And clinton made such a big deal at his press conference when he signed legislation to do away with that one piece of legislation that may have prevented all the bank disasters since.
Or at least pushed them off or made them smaller.
If Obama wants to make a big hit with the average person that knows a little about Wall Street and investing, he would go for it.
I doubt it though. Sen. Schumer would go ballistic, as would many of the other politicians “looking out for the little guy”.
Yes dduck, sadly both parties of Congress critters have been bought & paid for by the financial industry, some more than others. Glass-Steagall should never have been repealed and Clinton was foolish to sign it.