Election hits $2B mark amid last-minute donations

December 7, 2012 @ 1:05 am


FILE - This combination of 2012 file photos shows U.S. President Barack Obama, left, and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in Boulder, Colo. and Cape Canaveral, Fla. Campaign finance filings with the government now show that the cost of the 2012 U.S. presidential race has surpassed $2 billion, a new record. The new tallies released Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012, which include nearly $86 million in fundraising by Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in the election's final weeks, boosted the total campaign haul over the $2 billion mark. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, Charles Dharapak) | Zoom
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - Remarkable for its last-minute surge of contributions, the U.S. presidential election witnessed unprecedented sums of cash boosting two men in their quest for the White House. It was a cost that surpassed $2 billion and sometimes came with the cloak of anonymity for billionaire donors.

The election was the first in which "super" political action committees spent hundreds of millions on television ads, especially those supporting GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Super PACs, like those helping President Barack Obama, benefited from deep wells of money from wealthy donors and corporations.

A handful of mega donors stood out. The most prominent were Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, who together contributed nearly $100 million _ as promised _ to help Republican candidates. On the left, celebrities like Jeffrey Katzenberg poured millions of dollars into efforts helping Obama win a second term.

More than $230 million in super PAC money bolstered Romney's candidacy, adding to the massive haul by the Republican Party for the former Massachusetts governor. The pro-Romney super PACs were able to hammer the president in swing states with meticulously designed ads highlighting a woeful economy and what they portrayed as Obama's failed record.

A sizable chunk of that cash flowed in just weeks before Election Day. Because Federal Election Commission rules don't require groups to report until late November the money they've raised since mid-October, many top donors escaped scrutiny until after the Nov. 6 voting. The Adelsons' $33 million gift to two pro-Romney super PACs, as well as $3 million from Larry Ellison, head of software giant Oracle Corp., were not divulged until Thursday.

The pro-Obama Priorities USA Action raked in nearly 20 percent of the money it raised this election during the final weeks of the campaign. Much of that $15 million haul, records show, came from repeat million-dollar donors like Fred Eychaner, the founder of Chicago-based Newsweb Corp., and from the ranks of Renaissance Technologies, whose investors donated $4 million in the campaign's final weeks.

Those pots of money, in turn, enabled super PACs to dole out millions of dollars on pricey television ads in important swing states, including some where razor-thin ballot margins had been forecast for Election Day.

"The super PACs helped Romney run a more competitive race," said R. Donahue Peebles, an Obama fundraiser from New York. "But, in the end, money can take a candidate only so far."

Surpassing the $2 billion record was long expected after an election season dominated by the supercharged competitive pressures that both campaigns faced in mounting massive fundraising blitzes to stoke expensive media ad battles and ground wars. The Obama and Romney campaigns mobilized competing squads of ultra-wealthy fundraisers, sought aid from free-spending allied super PACS and deployed multimillion-dollar media broadsides and armies of organizers.

Romney and the GOP reported raising more than $920 million by election's end, compared with Obama and the Democrats' $960 million. Obama had been largely outspent by Romney and allied groups during the summer, but the president's campaign began to close that gap as Election Day approached.

Campaigns and outside groups brought in more than $1 billion to help each candidate, an Associated Press review of financial records showed. In 2008, Obama shattered records by raising more than $750 million in donations. Romney's campaign, for its part, said it stretched its dollar competing against an incumbent.

"Every dollar we raised was put to use in the effort to elect Mitt Romney," said finance chair Spencer Zwick, citing strong fundraising during the final weeks leading up to Nov. 6. Romney's election effort brought in $85.9 million since mid-October, compared with Obama's $111 million during the same period.

After a series of high-profile federal court rulings, the nation's relaxed campaign-finance system allowed for unlimited contributions from corporations, labor groups and others; television advertisements from nonprofit groups that concealed who paid for them and the proliferation of more than 1,000 super PACs. Those groups can't coordinate with the candidates they support, but groups on both sides of the political aisle were staffed with former campaign advisers who were deft political fundraisers.

But the election was known just as much for its sources of so-called dark money as it was for its hefty price tag.

Nonprofit "social welfare" organizations spent hundreds of millions more on so-called issue ads, and those groups don't have to disclose their donors because they're governed by tax law. Open-government groups have pushed Congress, to no avail, for a law that would require politically active groups to reveal their finances.

As well, federal rules require timely disclosure for super PACs, but determining who's behind big donations isn't always easy. In summer 2011, a fledgling company dissolved shortly after making a $1 million contribution to a super PAC supporting Romney; records showed that the company, established and closed over a four-month period, was formed by a Romney supporter who once worked with him at the private equity firm Bain Capital.

Other super PACs active this election season benefited from opaque, eleventh-hour contributions. FreedomWorks for America, a prominent tea party group, reported more than $5.2 million in donations during the first half of October _ about 90 percent of the group's fundraising haul _ from an apparent shell company in Knoxville, Tenn., called Specialty Group that advertises no product or service.

The company's owner, William Rose, said in a statement he was under no obligation to reveal where his money _ ultimately used to boost high-profile congressional races _ came from.

___

Follow Jack Gillum on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jackgillum


(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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Comments (19)


  • Add A Comment

  • TwoTrees wrote...
    Whaaa...? Dems take special interest money whilst demonizing Repubs who take special interest money?
    August 18, 2011 8:24 am
    Associated Press, you get right outta town!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • HLC wrote...
    It can't be so.
    August 18, 2011 9:45 am
    The press telling the truth about the taxacrats? Must be a red herring. They would never tell how corrupt the leftys really are.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • CH wrote...
    can't wait to see who needs kick backs
    October 15, 2011 3:35 am
    maybe some of bush's leftovers?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • It's me! Ha ha! wrote...
    It is fortunant for your Dear Leader
    October 15, 2011 3:59 pm
    that no ohter Liberal like Mrs. Clinton is running against him. I could just imagine the S**it show that would have been.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • roomtemp wrote...
    "Campaign reports show disparity among GOP"
    October 16, 2011 5:54 pm
    It does indeed... At least one of them isn't telling us where all that money is coming from.

    http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=N00000286

    And one of them is...

    http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cycle=2012&type=C&cid=N00005906&newMem=N

    I think I'll go with the honest one with 95% of his campaign funding coming from individuals, as opposed to corporate pacs and lobbyists.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • CH wrote...
    Thank you Retards for spending all your money on your Clown show . . . .
    January 31, 2012 6:54 pm
    making the Dear Leader Obama look better every day.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • vashonmatt wrote...
    Calista said she was "sick" about tonight's results. Newt promptly left her.
    February 1, 2012 4:52 am
    .
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • longwayhome wrote...
    Casino magnate supports republicans
    June 29, 2012 8:29 pm
    Shows the integrity of the republicans. Don't care where the money comes from, what does he want in return? Only the republicans know. It's becoming a desperate battle for republicans. No credibility, no money, no brains. romney has all but ruined his chances of becoming President by his two faced campaign and "forgetting" what he said last week and back peddling to regain some credibility. Go away mitt, go screw some more big companies out of their retirement benefits and force them to go overseas. Good mormon!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • maplefish wrote...
    We'll see Wrongway
    July 9, 2012 11:16 am
    November is coming closer every second and there will be another Democratic bloodbath. Smart Americans see right though the lying, incompetent, unaccountable, chickensht Obama dog & pony show!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • CH wrote...
    Think Romney can buy the WH? . . . .
    July 9, 2012 11:17 am
    donations with help of 'rich few'. China?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • CldWtrSrf wrote...
    You are an idiot CH
    July 9, 2012 1:25 pm
    Romney and Obama are getting the majority of their "campaign" BRIBES from the SAME Corporations. Mostly the BANKSTERS. So yes, THEY are buying the White House. You can't see past the D and look at the FACTS that Obama and Mittens are EXACTLY the same, owned by the same people.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • CH wrote...
    CldWtrSrf - FACTS that Obama and Mittens are EXACTLY the same . . . .
    July 9, 2012 6:32 pm
    Not true. Bush and Mittens are EXACTLY the same True. FACT is that Obama and Mittens are EXACTLY the same with healthcare. Surf's up - see ya
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • rational wrote...
    CH
    September 10, 2012 10:43 pm
    Obama takes credit for TARP, but that was a Bush thing...just ask leftists, they'll tell you it wasn't Obama spending. And as you say Obamacare is a copy of Romneycare...so it sure looks like Obama has no ideas of his own and just steals ideas from Bush and Romney. If you want bad ideas like TARP and Obamacare just cut out the middleman...we don't need Obama. In fact, we can't afford another 4 years of his incompetence.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • HPD 5-0 wrote...
    rational....facts...facts...facts
    September 11, 2012 5:12 am
    they don't matter to the commies. It's all about the letter "D". They are zombies.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }