# What role did interest groups play in elections and politics in the United States?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-did-interest-groups-play-in-elections-and-politics-in-the-united-states/651967>\
**Category:** Politics & Elections\
**Created:** [March 4, 2013, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-did-interest-groups-play-in-elections-and-politics-in-the-united-states/651967 "2013-03-04T03:11:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Paulagrace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/22d042/32.png) [@Paulagrace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paulagrace)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-did-interest-groups-play-in-elections-and-politics-in-the-united-states/651967/1 "2013-03-04T03:11:32Z")

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Hi can someone help me with these questions?

What role/impact do interest groups play in the elections and politics in the United States? (b4 n after the creation of super pacs)

How did the creation of super Pacs impacted the 2012 election?

What was the impact that super Pacs had in the 2012 presidential election?

I know this is a lot, but I am writing a paper and I have some of my paper done, but not all of it. I am somewhat good with interest groups, seeing how they have info about it in my PLS books. I just really need help on the super Pacs part, because it is fairly a new development; which means it is not in my textbooks. It is barely online.

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**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-did-interest-groups-play-in-elections-and-politics-in-the-united-states/651967/2 "2013-03-04T03:46:13Z")

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I caught the tail end of one of the Sunday interview shows and heard something I thought was interesting - except I can’t remember the numbers. Broadly speaking though I think in the last election, the large majority of Congress people running didn’t face a serious challenge.

So what seems to be happening is that you get a lot more money being poured into primary races by groups that want to skew the party their way in that state. I think the implication there is that in pretty much every case this money is from conservative groups trying to push out more centrist candidates but I don’t think they actually spelled that out.

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**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-did-interest-groups-play-in-elections-and-politics-in-the-united-states/651967/3 "2013-03-04T04:07:43Z")

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We’re not here to do your work for you.

**twickster** , for the SDMB