Sun
Oct 26 2014
10:33 am
Every Republican in the U.S. is running against Obama, and it's expensive
By: R. Neal

Obama must be the most powerful president ever and is apparently a formidable opponent. Every Republican candidate in the U.S. is running against him and he isn't even on the ballot.

Because of Obama's superpowers, this is the most expensive mid-term election in U.S. history. Spending is approaching $4 billion so far, including nearly $900 million in outside (PAC, 527) spending.

More than $95 million has been spent so far for a single North Carolina U.S. Senate seat, including $67.5 million in outside money. Ohio's 8th U.S. House district race has cost more than $17 million so far. Arizona's 2nd U.S. House district seat is apparently the most coveted by outside special interests, racking up nearly $10 million.

Wall Street has spent over $126 million so far, with 62% going to Republicans. Lawyers have spent more than $91 million, 70% of it going to Democrats. Environmental groups have spent $47.5 million, with 90% going to Democrats, while the oil and gas lobby has spent $37 million with 87% going to Republicans.

Here in Tennessee, Lamar Alexander has raised more than $7 million to fend off Democratic challenger Gordon Ball, who is mostly self financing. Gov. Haslam has $3 million on hand and has loaned his campaign $3.5 million and he doesn't even have a credible challenger.

Closer to home, Republican Eddie Smith has raised more than $51,000 in his bid to unseat Gloria Johnson for State House 13, who has more than $121,000 on hand. In the State Senate 7th district, Cheri Siler has raised more than $58,000 to take on Republican Richard Briggs, who loaned his campaign $132,000 and has raised another $320,000 from special interest groups and wealthy Republicans. (Is this the most expensive State Senate race ever?)

The Supreme Court says money is speech, because money talks.

Topics:
B Harmon's picture

Koch Bros

Submitted by B Harmon on Sun, 2014/10/26 - 11:14am.

I have seen many TV ads on HGTV and Lifetime for Eddie (really just anti-Gloria) all paid for by Koch bros. The latest postcard is also from them but all the others are from the voucher/charter school folks. We are getting almost one mailer a day of these hit pieces. I doubt any of this spending is in the total above for Eddie. What is so typical of these groups is that they accuse Gloria of taking money from special interest.

The letter-to-the-editor in today's KNS is just more of the anti-Gloria rhetoric, not much pro-Eddie to talk about.

R. Neal's picture

State campaign financial

Submitted by R. Neal on Sun, 2014/10/26 - 12:18pm.
(in reply to B Harmon)

State campaign financial disclosures are confusing. It's hard to tell if any of the 'dark money' is even being reported. Here's all the PAC money I could find:

$5,000.00 	SMITH, EDDIE	TRUTH MATTERS PAC
$1,000.00 	SMITH, EDDIE	NFIB/TN SAFE TRUST
$400.00 	SMITH, EDDIE	HALLS REPUBLICAN CLUB
$500.00 	SMITH, EDDIE	SHEILA'S LIBERTY PAC
$2,000.00 	SMITH, EDDIE	JOBS4TN PAC
$1,000.00 	SMITH, EDDIE	WSWT POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE
$1,000.00 	SMITH, EDDIE	JOHNSON VICTORY PAC
$100.00 	SMITH, EDDIE	CENTER CITY REPUBLICAN CLUB
$100.00 	SMITH, EDDIE	RED STATE PAC
$1,100.00 	SMITH, EDDIE	KNOX COUNTY REPUBLICAN PARTY
$200.00 	SMITH, EDDIE	VOLUNTEER WOMEN'S REPUBLICAN CLUB
$400.00 	SMITH, EDDIE	FOUNTAIN CITY REPUBLICAN CLUB

$1,500.00 	CAS-PAC	                        SMITH, EDDIE
$250.00 	TENNESSEE CHIROPRACTIC ASSN PAC	SMITH, EDDIE
$7,400.00 	KNOX COUNTY REPUBLICAN PARTY	SMITH, EDDIE
$500.00 	TENNESSEE REALTORS PAC	        SMITH, EDDIE
		
$23,610.00
jbr's picture

At one time it was simple and

Submitted by jbr on Sun, 2014/10/26 - 1:20pm.
(in reply to R. Neal)

At one time it was simple and straightforward to look up political contributions to Tennessee candidates, then the site was changed into an interface that frankly I could not figure out. Seems like that may have been around 2009 or 2010, not sure. It was such a mess I wondered if it was on purpose. It just looked completely useless to me. I just glanced at the current one. I couldn't interpret it quickly. May sit a look at it more closely later. That would be something Tennessee a may should investigate. That is a resource that should be well known and utilized by the public.

Maybe someone here can sort it out …

Search Online Campaign Finance Records

Mark Harmon's picture

Dark Money truly is Dark Money

Submitted by Mark Harmon on Sun, 2014/10/26 - 4:09pm.
(in reply to jbr)

Dark Money groups such as Koch Brothers' Americans for Prosperity call themselves social welfare organizations that don't have politics as their primary purpose (wink, wink, nod, nod). As a 501c4 it isn't required to disclose its donors. A huge flood of money from such groups is pouring into this election cycle.

PS Candidates don't have to report that spending because technically it is not supposed to coordinated with the candidate's campaign

Tamara Shepherd's picture

*

Submitted by Tamara Shepherd on Sun, 2014/10/26 - 7:15pm.
(in reply to jbr)

I find the site frustrating, too, jbr...

On my first stab at viewing Smith's contributions, I had to call Bean to ask what I was doing wrong that I couldn't even find his name on a list of candidates anywhere!

BTW, about Smith's disclosure (once I found it): It's curious. He's asked for around $1000 in reimbursments in the Third Quarter for gasoline, but he isn't making any debates or, near as I can tell, events of any kind? And he has oodles of reimbursements for food purchases of $4 and $5 and $6, as if he's reimbursing himself for his own fast food meals or something? And has has one expenditure at Food City for over $100, which he claims was for office supplies?

Given that no one seems to know how he supports himself, the appearance of the thing is that he's doing it in part via campaign contributions?!

(Disclaimer: Obviously, I haven't seen any of the invoices associated with these reimbursement requests. Just saying, tho.)

Knoxgal's picture

It's unfortunate so many Democrats

Submitted by Knoxgal on Sun, 2014/10/26 - 11:28am.

It's unfortunate so many Democrats in national races feel they have to distance themselves from Obama's accomplishments rather than aligning themselves with them. The Democrats are failing at messaging and this includes Obama. They do a poor job of countering the Republicans misinformation.

fischbobber's picture

What Knoxgal said.

Submitted by fischbobber on Sun, 2014/10/26 - 11:50am.
(in reply to Knoxgal)

+1

Mike Knapp's picture

There's some interesting push back

Submitted by Mike Knapp on Mon, 2014/10/27 - 6:29am.

After Gloria gets reelected maybe she could take a look at this Shareholders United Act!
Via radical communist Bill Moyers comes a report about efforts to move the ball in a different direction. Via Nation Action.

In the face of this federal inaction, Maryland could pass an exemplary bill next year that would make a real difference. This January, State Senator Jamie Raskin will introduce the Shareholders United Act, legislation that would require corporations to post all political contributions on their websites within 48 hours and would forbid corporations from spending on political campaigns and candidates unless they are able to prove that the contribution reflects the “majority will” of their shareholders. Crucially, if the majority of the corporation’s shares are held by institutional investors that cannot take political positions — this includes pension and retirement funds, insurance companies, universities and nonprofits — that corporation would be forbidden from donating to political campaigns. Because the majority of shares of Fortune 500 companies are owned by institutional investors, this provision would seriously hamper the ability of corporations to disproportionately influence popular elections.

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