Politics
Election 2012: Obama vs Republican super PACs
But Obama is unlikely to receive anywhere near the kind of financial backup Romney is already getting from outside groups. The pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA Action has raised just US$10 million since its inception, and few other Democratic-leaning groups have signaled they plan to compete with the pro-Romney efforts.
The latest of these comes from Restore Our Future (ROF), a super PAC run by former Romney advisers.
The group announced Wednesday it will go up with US$4.3 million in ads this week in nine states that will be key to winning the White House. The ad, “Saved,” describes Romney’s efforts that helped lead to the rescue of the teenage daughter of a colleague after she disappeared in New York for three days.
ROF was by far the biggest advertiser during the Republican nominating contest, spending US$36 million on ads attacking Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich. The group has raised more than US$51 million since its inception.
Its initial general election push follows a US$1.7 million, three-state ad buy from Crossroads GPS. That group’s spot attacks Obama’s energy policies. And it is an arm of American Crossroads, a super PAC with ties to President George W. Bush’s longtime political director Karl Rove and one of the most prolific spenders in the 2010 cycle that put the House in Republican hands. The two Crossroads groups have already raised US$100 million collectively for 2012 and plan to spend as much as US$300 million to defeat Obama and other Democrats.
Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a conservative-leaning independent group backed by the billionaire energy tycoons Charles and David Koch, dropped US$6.1 million on ads in eight general election swing states last week hitting Obama for allowing millions in federal stimulus money to be directed to green energy companies overseas. The group spent US$6.5 million earlier this year on ads criticizing Obama over Solyndra, a California-based solar energy company that went bankrupt despite a US$535 million federal loan guarantee.
AFP president Tim Phillips said the group planned to raise US$100 million and that slightly less than half would go to advertising. Much of the remaining amount, he said, would be used for field operations like rallies, bus tours, canvassing, phone banks and micro-targeting.
