Despite their funding deluge from wealthy donors, Republicans failed to overwhelm US President Barack Obama and Democrats at the ballot box. So was throwing all that money at the election worth it?
Obama was handily re-elected, Democrats added two more seats to their majority in the Senate and they cut into the Republican lead in the House of Representatives.
There is no two ways about it: That spelled bad news for Karl Rove, former US president George W. Bush’s then-strategist and a party luminary who raised huge money for Republican efforts across the US this year.
His two groups, super political action committee American Crossroads and its general interest group cousin Crossroads GPS, funneled at least US$176 million of donor money into anti-Obama advertising and Republican candidates, who lost en masse on Tuesday.
Some reports put the dollar figure above US$300 million.
Citizens United unleashed a torrent of funds from corporations and wealthy individuals — on both sides of the political fence.
The Sunlight Foundation, which advocates greater transparency in government and elections, estimated that outside groups spent a total of more than US$1.3 billion in independent expenditures to influence the outcome of this year’s races.
In the case of a public policy advocacy group like Crossroads GPS, spending must be reported, but the donor information can be kept confidential, allowing billionaire conservatives to spend sky-high sums without being identified.
However, of the 14 races targeted by American Crossroads, just three were won by Republicans, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics, a group that publishes election expenses. Crossroads GPS fared only slightly better; the group was seven-for-24 in its races.
Factors well beyond money helped explain the outcomes in multiple races, but progressive groups had feared that wealthy conservatives’ blank checks would swamp less heavily invested liberal candidates running in smaller, out-of-the-way areas.
Crossroads sees the glass half full. Crossroads communications director Jonathan Collegio said the group helped offset the fundraising juggernaut that was the Obama campaign, which spent US$541 million compared with the Romney campaign’s US$336 million.
“Crossroads played a critical role of balancing out those efforts and had we not been there, it’s safe to say that the outcome would have been considerably worse,” Collegio said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not