Has the Great GOP SuperPAC Experiment Failed?

NBC News ^ | 11/5/15 | CHUCK TODD, MARK MURRAY and CARRIE DANN

[jimbo123]

It's still early with the first votes in Iowa and New Hampshire almost three months away, but this has now become a legitimate question to ask: Has the GOP presidential candidates' Super PAC experiment failed? And failed badly? Consider some of the evidence:

Jeb Bush's Right to Rise Super PAC has aired $15.5 million in TV ads so far -- more than any other '16 entity -- and those ads haven't moved the polling needle;

Both Scott Walker and Rick Perry focused more on building up their Super PACs than their actual hard-money campaigns, and both men are no longer in the GOP race;

And maybe most damningly, Super PACs and other outside groups pay, on average, about FOUR times what campaigns do (since campaigns get discount rates from local TV stations). To put that into perspective, a presidential campaign needs to spend just $4 million in TV ads to get the same bang for the buck that Bush's Right to Rise has spent so far ($15.5 million).

[jimbo123]

[Cboldt]

That depends on the measure of success and failure. I’d say they succeeded. Money was shuffled off to cronies, and the GOP didn’t win enough seats to find itself “accountable to the public” under the party’s own terms.

[SteveinSATX]

It isn’t so much that pac’s failed as much as the candidates they support. Just imagine Trump with multiple multi-million pacs behind him? It would almost be scary crazy.

[ilgipper]

I’d put the blame on outdated self interested consultants who never seem to actually produce winning results.

Organizations like Americans for Prosperity have produced results because they build grassroots organization to get voters out and inform them. These consultancy super pacs are just for self enrichment. Same with a number of the tea party groups that never produced meanful results last two cycles.

[The_Victor]

So Jeb’s campaign is auguring in from 10,000 feet and the problem is his PAC?

[MUDDOG]

Super PACs and other outside groups pay, on average, about FOUR times what campaigns do (since campaigns get discount rates from local TV stations).

Wow! Incredible.

[jmaroneps37]

“Yes, next easy question please!”