Mitt Romney wrapped up the Republican presidential nomination with a good bit of help from Restore Our Future, the super PAC supporting him. But just how big a role has outside spending overall played in the election so far?
In fact, the amount of spending by outside groups has grown dramatically since previous elections, and independent expenditures in particular -- messages that explicitly call for the election or defeat of a candidate -- are increasingly the preferred vehicle. Outside spending in all its forms has doubled since 2008, but independent expenditures have more than tripled.
In 2004 and 2008, electioneering communications -- essentially issue ads that refer to a candidate without asking voters to elect or defeat him/her, and are broadcast within 30 days of a primary or 60 days of a general election -- were key components of outside spending. This time around, though, there's less being spent on this subset of issue ads in absolute terms; as a percentage of all outside spending, the drop is even more pronounced. That could be because the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission and SpeechNow.org v. FEC court cases eliminated restrictions on the types of funds that can be used for independent expenditures, possibly reducing the appeal of the less direct electioneering communications; there's also legal uncertainty about disclosure requirements for donors.
The third type of outside spending that's reported to the Federal Election Commission, member communications, includes messages from groups to only their members and can advocate for or against candidates. Often used by labor unions, they have been important at this stage in presidential races with Democratic primary competition (1992, 2000, 2004, 2008) but not in other years.
Read more: http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2012/06/outside-spending---the-big-picture.html
In fact, the amount of spending by outside groups has grown dramatically since previous elections, and independent expenditures in particular -- messages that explicitly call for the election or defeat of a candidate -- are increasingly the preferred vehicle. Outside spending in all its forms has doubled since 2008, but independent expenditures have more than tripled.
In 2004 and 2008, electioneering communications -- essentially issue ads that refer to a candidate without asking voters to elect or defeat him/her, and are broadcast within 30 days of a primary or 60 days of a general election -- were key components of outside spending. This time around, though, there's less being spent on this subset of issue ads in absolute terms; as a percentage of all outside spending, the drop is even more pronounced. That could be because the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission and SpeechNow.org v. FEC court cases eliminated restrictions on the types of funds that can be used for independent expenditures, possibly reducing the appeal of the less direct electioneering communications; there's also legal uncertainty about disclosure requirements for donors.
The third type of outside spending that's reported to the Federal Election Commission, member communications, includes messages from groups to only their members and can advocate for or against candidates. Often used by labor unions, they have been important at this stage in presidential races with Democratic primary competition (1992, 2000, 2004, 2008) but not in other years.
Read more: http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2012/06/outside-spending---the-big-picture.html
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