# GOP superPACs plan to spend $1 billion on electons this year **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [June 8, 2012, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-superpacs-plan-to-spend-1-billion-on-electons-this-year/624451 "2012-06-08T01:37:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2012, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-superpacs-plan-to-spend-1-billion-on-electons-this-year/624451/1 "2012-06-08T01:37:36Z")
From [Politico:](http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0512/76849.html#ixzz1x5oSqY9X) > [@](#): > > 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. > > Restore Our Future, the super PAC supporting Mitt Romney, proved its potency by spending nearly $50 million in the primaries. Now able to entice big donors with a neck-and-neck general election, the group is likely to meet its new goal of spending $100 million more. > > And American Crossroads and the affiliated Crossroads GPS, the groups that Rove and Ed Gillespie helped conceive and raise cash for, are expected to ante up $300 million, giving the two-year-old organization one of the election’s loudest voices. > > “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. [Let’s please not allow this any more.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=653227) ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2012, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-superpacs-plan-to-spend-1-billion-on-electons-this-year/624451/2 "2012-06-08T01:46:24Z")
Unless you’re able to amend the Constitution, there is nothing you can do. ---
**Author:** ![2nd\_Law](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/f475e1/32.png) [@2nd\_Law](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2nd_Law)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2012, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-superpacs-plan-to-spend-1-billion-on-electons-this-year/624451/3 "2012-06-08T01:52:43Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Unless you’re able to amend the Constitution, there is nothing you can do. I don’t know about that. I suspect if someone could talk Bill Gates or Warren Buffet into pumping a billion bucks into the Democrats’ PAC’s, and the Republicans took a shellacking in November as a result, that there might be some bipartisan support for campaign finance reform, and that somehow the Supreme Court might think again about Citizens’ United. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2012, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-superpacs-plan-to-spend-1-billion-on-electons-this-year/624451/4 "2012-06-08T01:56:22Z")
Doubt it. George Soros spent $23M in the 03-04 elections and look what that got us. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2012, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-superpacs-plan-to-spend-1-billion-on-electons-this-year/624451/5 "2012-06-08T01:56:52Z")
> [@2nd\_Law](#): > > I don’t know about that. > > I suspect if someone could talk Bill Gates or Warren Buffet into pumping a billion bucks into the Democrats’ PAC’s, and the Republicans took a shellacking in November as a result, that there might be some bipartisan support for campaign finance reform, and that somehow the Supreme Court might think again about Citizens’ United. :rolleyes: And if frogs grew wings, they would not bump their asses when they hop around. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2012, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-superpacs-plan-to-spend-1-billion-on-electons-this-year/624451/6 "2012-06-08T02:03:05Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Unless you’re able to amend the Constitution, there is nothing you can do. Money != speech. And freedom of speech != the freedom to buy the most time on the loudest amplifier in the room. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2012, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-superpacs-plan-to-spend-1-billion-on-electons-this-year/624451/7 "2012-06-08T02:05:33Z")
Man, Republicans are stupid to be wasting that much money. After all, everyone knows that money doesn’t influence elections at all. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2012, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-superpacs-plan-to-spend-1-billion-on-electons-this-year/624451/8 "2012-06-08T02:12:59Z")
But in the conservative POV (or at least the ones I’ve read, whether representative or not), it all fits together, really: businesses and wealthy individuals buy elections. Therefore the problem is government; if it weren’t so powerful, it wouldn’t matter. Ergo, it’s a reason to destroy as much of it as possible. ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2012, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-superpacs-plan-to-spend-1-billion-on-electons-this-year/624451/9 "2012-06-08T02:13:36Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > GOP superPACs plan to spend $1 billion on electons this year > > Let’s please not allow this any more. It’s long been know that the Obama administrations re-election fund rasing goal has been to collect $1 billion. Is there a rule that says Obama can try to raise $1 billion but no one else can? ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2012, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-superpacs-plan-to-spend-1-billion-on-electons-this-year/624451/10 "2012-06-08T02:15:17Z")
For myself, the problem is that there IS no difference. There must come a point where this kind of money arms race is absurd, counterproductive, and unhealthy for the process. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2012, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-superpacs-plan-to-spend-1-billion-on-electons-this-year/624451/11 "2012-06-08T02:16:28Z")
Wouldn’t it be cheaper just to pay your taxes? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2012, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-superpacs-plan-to-spend-1-billion-on-electons-this-year/624451/12 "2012-06-08T02:16:33Z")
> [@](#): > > Man, Republicans are stupid to be wasting that much money. After all, everyone knows that money doesn’t influence elections at all. It influences election less than some people think but it does have appreciable influence. However, the influence I fear is the continued heightening of partisanship. Already polarized people who don’t listen to anyone they disagree with will be inundated with even more ads from people they agree with. Then, even if they lose the election they will be all “they STOLE the election! Let’s take OUR country back! I don’t know ANYONE who voted for the other guy! All you hear from EVERYONE is support for my side! They’re not real Americans!” I think ads can reinforce this view. ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2012, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-superpacs-plan-to-spend-1-billion-on-electons-this-year/624451/13 "2012-06-08T02:22:05Z")
> [@2nd\_Law](#): > > I don’t know about that. > > I suspect if someone could talk Bill Gates or Warren Buffet into pumping a billion bucks into the Democrats’ PAC’s, and the Republicans took a shellacking in November as a result, that there might be some bipartisan support for campaign finance reform, and that somehow the Supreme Court might think again about Citizens’ United. There is no reason for the SCOTUS to “think again” about Citizens United. The SCOTUS doesn’t write our laws, Congress does. Congress screwed up when they rewrote the Campaign Fianance laws. The SCOTUS ruled that “some” of the things Congress wrote were unConstitutional. Don’t blame the SCOTUS. Blame Congress. Congress can readdress Campaign Fianance any time they wish. And this time, maybe they can get it right. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2012, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-superpacs-plan-to-spend-1-billion-on-electons-this-year/624451/14 "2012-06-08T02:35:53Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Money != speech. And freedom of speech != the freedom to buy the most time on the loudest amplifier in the room. Cite to controlling legal authority? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2012, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-superpacs-plan-to-spend-1-billion-on-electons-this-year/624451/15 "2012-06-08T02:42:16Z")
> [@doorhinge](#): > > There is no reason for the SCOTUS to “think again” about Citizens United. The SCOTUS doesn’t write our laws, Congress does. The Supreme Court could be unreasonably blocking law that should be constitutional through a combination of morality and constitutional law. To look at low hanging fruit, some Supreme Court decisions are very close: what makes the four dissenting justices absolutely and incontrovertably wrong-headed, when they collectively have almost as much experience and knowledge as the majority? We all know of otherwise intelligent people who happen to be wrong on any given issue. It doesn’t mean that the entire court consists of constitutional doofuses to think that the opinions of the majority are in the wrong compared to those of the minority, who are themselves noted scholars. ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2012, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-superpacs-plan-to-spend-1-billion-on-electons-this-year/624451/16 "2012-06-08T03:19:45Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > The Supreme Court could be unreasonably blocking law that should be constitutional through a combination of morality and constitutional law. To look at low hanging fruit, some Supreme Court decisions are very close: what makes the four dissenting justices absolutely and incontrovertably wrong-headed, when they collectively have almost as much experience and knowledge as the majority? > > We all know of otherwise intelligent people who happen to be wrong on any given issue. It doesn’t mean that the entire court consists of constitutional doofuses to think that the opinions of the majority are in the wrong compared to those of the minority, who are themselves noted scholars. Does the SCOTUS make our laws or is that the job of Congress? Congress can readdress the sections, or even the entire issue, of Campaign Fianance Reform at any time. Anyone who objects to how political campaigns are fiananced should be making three phone calls to their elected reps. Everyone has two Senators and one Congressman. Blaming the SCOTUS because Congress can’t write a constitutional law is absurd. ---
**Author:** ![Yask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Yask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yask)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2012, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-superpacs-plan-to-spend-1-billion-on-electons-this-year/624451/17 "2012-06-08T05:35:56Z")
> [@doorhinge](#): > > Does the SCOTUS make our laws or is that the job of Congress? > > Congress can readdress the sections, or even the entire issue, of Campaign Fianance Reform at any time. Anyone who objects to how political campaigns are fiananced should be making three phone calls to their elected reps. Everyone has two Senators and one Congressman. > > Blaming the SCOTUS because Congress can’t write a constitutional law is absurd. The SCOTUS makes laws all the time, as it should. Basic civics 101; junior high, even. There is a substantial difference between case law and statuary law, but both have the power of law. Before you go spouting talking points and asking rhetorical questions, get a clue about how the government works. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2012, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-superpacs-plan-to-spend-1-billion-on-electons-this-year/624451/18 "2012-06-08T08:28:39Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Cite to controlling legal authority? I think it was _BrainGlutton v. Any Possible GOP Success_. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2012, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-superpacs-plan-to-spend-1-billion-on-electons-this-year/624451/19 "2012-06-08T09:29:55Z")
> [@doorhinge](#): > > Congress can readdress the sections, or even the entire issue, of Campaign Fianance Reform at any time. You must have a really low opinion of Congress if you think that they are so stupid as to write an obviously unconstitutional law. As if you can simply look up the relevant Constitutionality in a book and the Supreme Court is simply applying a very easy algorithm to their law. Like I said before, the fact that many SC decisions are far from unanimous means that the court’s opinion on the constitutionality of any given law is often not obvious. Furthermore, laws are ruled on partly on their results. It’s not as if Congress could write any sort of campaign finance reform they wanted if only they could find the Magic Words. Some portions may be impossible given the current makeup of the Court, which would rule against the provisions no matter how they are worded. So in that case, it _is_ the Court’s fault. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2012, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-superpacs-plan-to-spend-1-billion-on-electons-this-year/624451/20 "2012-06-08T13:43:16Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > I think it was _BrainGlutton v. Any Possible GOP Success_. You really don’t believe in any possibility of GOP success without the money-advantage? I do. I base that on the fact that the GOP has an actual grassroots base. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-superpacs-plan-to-spend-1-billion-on-electons-this-year/624451.md?page=2)