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Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and his super PAC, Right to Rise, have spent $58.8 million on the 2016 campaign, a recent analysis found. That's almost $2 million more than the combined total of the next three biggest spenders (and their super PACs and outside supporters): Marco Rubio ($32.6 million), Hillary Clinton ($12.8 million), and Bernie Sanders ($11.6 million). And what has this gotten the Bush campaign? Unfortunately for Mr. Bush, not all that much.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush defended negative ads that a super PAC supporting him has run against his rivals, saying that "politics isn't beanbag." During a town hall event here Saturday night, Mr. Bush took a question from a voter who said he'd grown tired of overwhelmingly negative ads that are now blanketing the airwaves in New Hampshire, Iowa and other early primary states. "I bet you have a lot of them," Mr. Bush joked in return.

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is taking his insult game to a new level, turning his fire on Jeb Bush's mother. After a campaign ad earlier Friday where former first lady Barbara Bush that took veiled shots at Trump, the billionaire businessman shot back by calling Jeb Bush a mama's boy: Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump Just watched Jeb's ad where he desperately needed mommy to help him. Jeb --- mom can't help you with ISIS, the Chinese or with Putin. 7:02 PM - 22 Jan 2016

You knew it had to happen soon: Someone at Politico (or actually two someones, Anna Palmer and Eli Stokols) would get on the horn with some of the donors who poured more than $100 million into the Jeb Bush super-pac Right to Rise and would reliably hear and report some high-end bitching. And the object of this unhappiness was equally predictable: Right to Rise chieftain and longtime Republican campaign consultant Mike Murphy, who has burned through about half of the vast RTR war chest even as his candidate went from being the unquestioned front-runner to this feckless and much-ridiculed guy...

As former Florida Governor Jeb Bush struggles to rise in the polls, blame has begun mounting on the spending tactics of the man in charge of Bush Super PAC Right to Rise, Mike Murphy. Of the more than 22 million dollars spent on ads attacking Sen Marco Rubio since the start of December, $20 million has come from Right to Rise. The Super PAC has also spent money on iPad-style video mailers and a 47-page magazine sent out to supporters in NH.

The Jeb Bush-affiliated super-PAC Right to Rise is the most prolific advertiser of the 2016 presidential race, and it's looking to spend another $300,000 to place an ad during an event sure to be seen by plenty of people: the Super Bowl. The super-PAC is crowdfunding the cost, enticing donations with swag like Super Bowl koozies, a commemorative poster, a hat, a campaign gift bag and a sneak peek at the ad before it airs. A $10,000 donation earns an invitation to a Super Bowl watch party in New Hampshire and a strategy briefing with Mike Murphy, CEO of Right...

When Jeb Bush and his allies began helping the "super PAC" supporting him raise more than $100 million last year, his bid for the Republican nomination seemed like a safe bet. But as Mr. Bush's campaign continues to lag, his backers are increasingly turning their frustrations over his foundering candidacy on the group, Right to Rise, and its inability to influence the race. Some donors quietly worry about how the cash-rich group is spending its money, confounded by how few tangible results the tens of millions it has pumped into the race so far have yielded. Others have expressed dismay...

With Jeb struggling, supporters, staff and donors start pointing the finger at the super PAC's chief, Mike Murphy. They think he wasted money on everything from an iPad-sized video mailer to direct mail for donors in states that don't yet matter. They think his attacks on Marco Rubio are doing more harm than good. And they worry that, at the end, all he will have accomplished is the destruction of the Bush family brand. The big-money supporters fueling Jeb Bush's super PAC have found their boogey man: Mike Murphy, a sharp-witted, Twitter-obsessed veteran GOP ad man who runs Right to...

He may still be down in the polls, but the latest reminder of GOP presidential contender Jeb Bush's financial prowess arrived on Monday. Right to Rise USA, the super PAC backing the former Florida governor's presidential bid, said it has reserved roughly $10.8 million in advertising time in seven states holding primaries or caucuses in March. The group has raised more than $100 million to back Bush's bid and is already spending nearly $18 million on television, radio and Internet advertising in the first four states holding contests.

With the Iowa caucus less than two weeks away, a super PAC supporting former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is trying new ways to lure in potential voters: A video mailer. The group, Right to Rise, is sending supporters in Iowa and New Hampshire (which holds is primary in three weeks) LCD displays that start playing a documentary called "The Jeb Story" when opened.

The spectacular bust of Jeb Bush's campaign for president so far is as much a story about Bush himself as it is about the failure of Right to Rise, the shock-and-awe super PAC that was supposed to launch him into the lead and keep him there. Right to Rise raised $103 million in 2015 and has spent more than $65 million so far. But nine months after he got into the race, Bush has collapsed from first to a tie for worst and is now polling at less than 5 percent nationally. There's no nice way to say this, and...

The super PAC supporting GOP hopeful Jeb Bush is asking donors to pitch in to fund a Super Bowl advertisement. On Friday, The New York Times reported Mike Murphy, the head or Right to Rise, urged donors in an email to contribute online to air an advertisement supporting Bush in New England during the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is Feb. 7, two days before New Hampshire's primary on Feb. 9. According to the Times, the email to donors included a link to the website. The organization is looking to raise $300,000 for the advertisement, according to the fundraising campaign's...

Can this fix it? Right to Rise USA, the super PAC supporting Jeb Bush's presidential campaign, has delivered video players preloaded with a documentary about Bush to an undisclosed "select universe of influencers, donors and core supporters" in New Hampshire and Iowa, according to a spokesman. The video player is similar to the ones sold by Hallmark to send video cards to relatives or friends and is preloaded with copies of "The Jeb Story," a 15-minute documentary produced by the PAC. -snip- The documentary debuted in the fall and is still running on the New England Sports Network, a channel...

Yesterday, I wondered why the Bush Super PAC, Right to Rise, that cash guzzling behemoth that has blown through the GDP of a small nation, was crowdfunding a Super Bowl ad rather than just buying it outright. Was it an attempt to be young and edgy? Or is Right to Rise, as I suspect, nearly broke? A lot of other people are asking similar questions: A prominent donor to Jeb Bush pressed the chief strategist of the "super PAC" supporting Mr. Bush over the group’s negative ads about Senator Marco Rubio during a closed-door meeting in Manhattan on Friday, according...

The super PAC Right to Rise has already raised more than $100 million to support former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's presidential campaign. Now, however, the group is turning to crowd-funding to generate some more cash and more buzz ahead of the February 7 New Hampshire primary. Specifically, Right to Rise is trying to raise $300,000 from small donors to air an ad in New Hampshire during the Super Bowl. -snip- The MVP donors are promised an invitation to an "exclusive" Super Bowl watch party in New Hampshire and VIP-level attendance at a strategy briefing with Right to Rise CEO Mike...

After a week of spending "big" on television advertising, Donald J. Trump appears to be slowing his pace. For his second week of advertising, Mr. Trump is spending roughly a third of what he did in his first week, with about $750,000 in reservations in Iowa and New Hampshire, according to multiple media buyers. At the beginning of the month, Mr. Trump pledged to spend at least $2 million a week on advertising, and he did so for the first week. But when it came time to renew or reserve new advertising, Mr. Trump is taking a more frugal approach,...

Marco Rubio's boots have the lead role in a new attack video from the Jeb Bush super PAC. The video asserts that Rubio has changed positions on key issues, from immigration to Syria. The aggressive attacks by Right to Rise in the past couple weeks -- including a new TV ad released yesterday -- have provoked a back and forth between the Bush and Rubio camps.

The super PAC supporting Jeb Bush released a new TV ad entitled "Vane" on Monday - a 30-second spot that attacks Sen. Marco Rubio for changing his position on immigration reform and supporting "amnesty." Politico reports that the ad was first reported by the Washington Examiner on Monday and noted that the spot opened with an animation of Rubio shown as weathervane atop a barn who shifts with the "political winds." "Marco Rubio: He ran for Senate saying he opposed amnesty," the ad says. "Then he flipped and worked with liberal Chuck Schumer to co-author the path to citizenship. He...

The super PAC supporting former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is going after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. The pro-Bush Right to Rise super PAC is sending out mailers questioning Christie's record as governor in its first direct attack at Christie in Iowa. -snip- Both candidates lag far behind the pack in Iowa. A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll of the Iowa Republican primary found Bush at 4 percent and Christie at 3, far behind Sen. Ted Cruz at 28 percent leading the field, followed by Donald Trump at 24 percent.

Jeb Bush has vaulted into second place in a New Hampshire poll released Friday. The NH1 News survey also shows Donald Trump retaining a commanding lead in the Republican presidential primary contest in the Granite State. Here's the breakdown: Trump: 31.7 percent Bush: 11.9 percent