@Thom_Hartmann #ThomHartmann blog: Outside Spending This Election Season
by Thom Hartmann,posted Oct 10 2012 3:53PM
You ain’t seen nothing yet. A new report by Open Secrets reveals that non-Party SuperPACs and “dark money” groups with mystery donors have spent more than a half billion dollars this election cycle – more than the total amount of spending by non-party groups in every election since 1990 COMBINED. And most of that money is not being used in the Presidential election – it’s being used in Congressional and state races where it doesn’t take much money to sway an election and the media markets are cheaper.
But here’s the thing – the majority of spending this year is still likely to come. According to historical precedents – most spending occurs in the final weeks before the election, meaning voters are about to be hit with a tidal wave of TV ads financed by unknown corporate donors.
According to some estimates – total outside election spending will be well into the billions before it’s all said and done.
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