Independent groups
Wall Street Journal: The Taxman Politics
By COLLIN LEVYWith anxiety high over election spending, the Internal Revenue Service may be interpreting its tax compliance mandate to include increased oversight of 501(c)(4) groups which have been spending millions this election season.
NY Times: Americans for Prosperity Begins $25 Million Anti-Obama Ad Campaign
By JEREMY W. PETERSORLANDO, Fla. — Americans for Prosperity, the Tea Party organization backed by the Koch brothers, is set to begin a $25 million advertising assault aimed at President Obama, its largest effort to date.
Wall Street Journal: Here a PAC, There a PAC—Except Some Are Not So Super
By RACHEL LOUISE ENSIGN And BRODY MULLINSWASHINGTON—Big new super PACs, such as American Crossroads and Priorities USA Action, are raking in millions of dollars and playing a leading role in the 2012 election.
U.S. News: Karl Rove Group Uses Typo to Skirt FEC Disclosure Law
By SETH CLINECrossroads GPS, Karl Rove’s powerful outside spending group, is banking that a typo on the Federal Election Commission’s website will allow it to spend anonymously for a few extra days without reprisal.
Politico: Priorities ad ties Romney to lost health insurance, cancer death (Updated)
By Alexander BurnsThe Obama super PAC Priorities USA Action is unveiling perhaps the harshest, most personal ad of the 2012 presidential race, featuring a former worker at a Bain-owned company talking about the death of his wife after their family lost health insurance.
Huffington Post: Why I Gave One Million Dollars to Re-elect President Obama
By Mel HeifetzWhat motivates us to give to political campaigns? As a political donor, I often get asked this question and never have a good answer. You either do or don’t think much about it.
National Journal: Obama Super PAC Launches New Romney Corporate Villain Ad
By Rebecca KaplanA super PAC backing President Obama paints Republican rival Mitt Romney as a heartless corporate raider in a new television ad featuring an unemployed worker who blames Bain Capital for the loss of his family’s health insurance after Romney’s company shuttered the steel plant where he worked.
Candidates and parties
Washington Post: Mitt Romney’s money edge — and whether it matters
By Chris Cillizza and Aaron BlakeAdd to those numbers the fact that, as of mid-July, Republican super PACs and other conservative aligned outside groups were outspending their Democratic counterparts by a seven-to-one margin on the TV airwaves in swing states, and you are left with a simple, inescapable conclusion: The President of the United States is likely to be heavily outspent in the final three months of this campaign.
Politico: Election 2012: The myth of the small donor
By KENNETH P. VOGELSusan Daole last month gave $100 to President Barack Obama because she wanted to fight the flood of million-dollar checks supporting Mitt Romney.
