public monies are used to finance which campaigns

Hedge funder Jim Simons in mid-October donated $1.5 million to Priorities (bringing his tally to $5 million) and $500,000 to House Majority PAC ($1.5 million total). And the latest figures highlighted the continued emergence of a new class of Democratic super PAC donors.Įychaner, an Obama bundler, in the final weeks donated $1 million to Priorities (raising to $4 million his total giving to it), and $500,000 apiece to the super PACs devoted to Democratic Senate and House candidates, Majority PAC and House Majority PAC, respectively (to which he’s now given a combined total of $8.3 million). Obama, who initially opposed super PACs, eventually came to bless one devoted to him called Priorities USA Action. Other seven-figure checks that showed up in Thursday’s filing by Restore Our Future included $1 million from Houston Texans honcho Robert McNair, whose has previously supported the Texas Conservatives Fund and pro-Rick Perry Make Us Great Again super PACs. They also gave tens of millions of dollars more to nonprofit groups that don’t disclose their donors. He and wife Miriam wrote a host of big checks in the campaigns closing weeks, including $23 million to the Karl Rove-backed American Crossroads super PAC and $ 10 million to Restore Our Future, bringing their total to that group to $30 million. Super PACs like those, as well as secretive nonprofit groups – both spurred by the 2010 Citizens United decision and other federal court rulings – allowed extremely wealthy activists to play in presidential and congressional politics like never before.Īnd, while liberals rallied late in the cycle to super PACs supporting Obama and his Democratic congressional allies, conservatives led the way with this new type of campaign cash. Overall, Restore Our Future outraised Priorities $154 million to $79 million. And Romney’s spending advantage widened to $337 million to $279 million when taking into consideration the super PACs devoted to the rivals, the pro-Obama Priorities USA Action and the pro-Romney Restore Our Future. ( Also on POLITICO: Liberal donors gave at 11th hour)īut in the final weeks, Romney’s committees outspent Obama’s $292 million to $258 million, according to the reports. POLITICO’s overall fundraising comparison is derived from the totals raised by those committees since the start of 2011. 26, the period covered by Thursday’s filings, Obama’s campaign, combined with a trio of Democratic Party committees devoted to it (the Democratic National Committee and the joint DNC-Obama campaign committees called Obama Victory Fund 2012 and Swing State Victory Fund), raised $111 million, compared to $100 million raised by Romney’s campaign, the Republican National Committee and the joint RNC-Romney campaign Romney Victory. They banked on larger donations to flood the airwaves in the final weeks to turn late-deciding voters against the incumbent in a backloaded strategy that left them with money in the bank at the end – typically a no-no in presidential politics.īetween Oct. But it was actually outspent by Romney and the big-donor-funded outside groups that supported him. President Barack Obama’s campaign relied on smaller donors to fuel a robust ground game and summer advertising seeking to define Republican rival Mitt Romney, and then widened its fundraising advantage as the campaign reached its apex.

The reports also show how the two candidates and their allies navigated the new big-money system using divergent strategies until the bitter end. Thursday’s filings lay bare those donations and other jaw-dropping financial details of the first modern presidential campaign in which donors could give unlimited contributions for political ads and in which both major party candidates declined to participate in a Watergate-era public financing system designed to limit fundraising. ( Also on POLITICO: Adelson gave another $10M to Romney super PAC)Īdelson and his wife gave $39.7 million to GOP-allied super PACs in the campaign’s final weeks to bring their total disclosed contributions to almost $90 million, while Eychaner gave $2 million, bringing his total to $14 million. That’s the final fundraising tally in the most expensive presidential election ever, according to reports filed Thursday with the Federal Election Commission by the rival campaigns and party committees.Īnd that doesn’t include an explosion of late advertising funded by last -minute checks from mega-donors like Las Vegas casino owner Sheldon Adelson and Chicago media mogul Fred Eychaner, whose emergence as political forces may be the enduring legacy of 2012.

Public monies are used to finance which campaigns