Millions of dollars were raised and spent, swing states reeled from endless political ads, and now that US President Barack Obama has been re-elected, the soul searching begins.
What happened to the powerful Republican “Super PACs” and advocacy groups that staked all in a failed attempt to ensure the Democrat’s defeat?
This year’s campaign was the first real test for “super” political action committees (PACs) — in part spawned by a 2010 US Supreme Court ruling known as “Citizens United” that did away with limits on corporate and union spending in elections.
Campaign finance reformers on the left had feared the change in the law would give Republicans an advantage. Democrats were initially reluctant to embrace Super PACs, in part out of squeamishness, having resisted such unfettered campaign funding by big business. However, faced with the massive amounts of money being spent on the other side, they eventually came around and contributed enough cash to their own Super PACs to put up a successful fight.
Conservative Super PACs say they did all they could to help Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney stand up to Obama’s well-oiled campaign fundraising machine, which ensured his early and dominant presence on the airwaves.
Indeed, more than a dozen free-spending groups spent nearly US$500 million propping up Romney’s run, first helping him float to the top in the Republican nomination and then sustaining him through a money gap in the summer.
However, in the end, the unprecedented US$6 billion spent on this election — a grand total by campaigns and outside groups in the primary, congressional and presidential races, with one-sixth of that funding presidential advertising alone — became so excessive that the impact of the ads waned. Experts say this proved the importance of the candidate’s own activity and once again rendered successful a strategy of leveraging the power of incumbency to define the challenger early in the race.
In an e-mail to supporters shortly after his victory on Tuesday night, Obama thanked his grassroots organizers, and said: “Today is the clearest proof yet that, against the odds, ordinary Americans can overcome powerful interests.”
However, the Democrats also made good use of the new system. The main pro-Obama Super PAC, Priorities USA Action, repeatedly hit out against Romney, painting him as a corporate raider.
Priorities USA Action reported investing nearly US$70 million in digital, TV and radio advertising, federal disclosures show.
And despite its squeaky start as Democrats took time to warm to the notion of Super PACs, the attacks on Romney went largely unanswered.
Bill Burton, who runs Priorities, has called this “one of the biggest surprises in the entire election,” and in private, Republican operatives also acknowledge that it was a big disappointment.
“They missed the most important role they could have had — saving Romney’s back when he was being attacked,” Burton said of rival groups, such as the pro-Romney Restore Our Future and the formidable Crossroads duo of Super PAC and non-profit run by former US president George W. Bush aide Karl Rove.
The two Crossroads groups spent nearly US$150 million on advertising in the presidential race, according to tallies provided by Republican sources. Tax-exempt groups are not required to officially disclose all of the spending or donors.
Restore Our Future has reported spending nearly US$100 million on creating and placing ads, according to federal disclosures.
Of course, Priorities’ ads alone did not cost Romney the election, but they showcase what Republican Super PAC operatives have called the dichotomy in strategic approaches to the race: Democrats got vitriolic and personal, while top Republican groups largely steered clear of attacking Obama personally or even talking of Romney individually, instead sticking with broad partisan messages on the economy and policies.
Republican strategists say that personal attacks were avoided because they got poor reviews from independents and women, cohorts they had hoped to sway.
However, the broader focus stems also from the fact that the sights of leading conservative groups are set far beyond Romney and this year — on the pursuit of a lasting Republican majority in the Congress, a buildup of boots-on-the-ground power to challenge the Democrats’ advantage and popularization of conservative economic or social values.
“It’s never about one year or one election; it genuinely is about bringing the public to our view,” said Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative non-profit funded in part by the billionaire Koch brothers that has pursued an expansion of the Republican ground game and which spend about US$46 million on presidential TV ads.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was