Free Republic

"The fact of the matter is knowledge about Donald Trump is a mile wide and an inch deep," Guy Cecil says. The coming ad assault against Donald Trump from pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC Priorities USA Action is likely to drill a three-pronged message deep into the minds of swing state voters, if the group’s leaders have their way. The three central tenets of the message will be that the real estate investor is a divisive character, that he’s too dangerous to vote for, and that he’s a con man, Priorities’ chief strategist Guy Cecil explained to POLITICO on Monday —...

If we’ve learned anything from this election cycle it’s that American politics gets the messiest when it’s online. And the Clinton campaign has decided that it wants to fight fire with fire when it comes to online trolls. The Clinton camp has built their own troll army using roughly $1 million of super-PAC funds. The only question remaining: Is this open coordination of online campaigning even legal? As the Los Angeles Times reports, a super-PAC called Correct the Record has hired a legion of “former reporters, bloggers, public affairs specialists, [and] designers” to go after anyone online who is critical...

As Hillary Clinton runs to become the next leader of the free world in November, she’ll have more than just have the Democrat establishment and a phalanx of Super PACs behind her. Hillary Clinton will also benefit from the support of a community of organized thugs, miscreants and academically poisoned zombies. Here’s what they wrought last night outside a Trump rally in Costa Mesa, California.

In addition to "grass-roots" campaign workers, there are at least eight Super PACs backed by 'shadow elites' who are driven to defeat Donald Trump and they are banking on Ted Cruz. At least one of these super PAC leaders, Katie Packer of OPP, met behind closed doors at the RNC Spring Meeting this week in Florida. Packer states that a republican candidate should "uphold orthodox GOP ideology." This smacks of irony given her past allegiance with Romney/Ryan and Ryan's inability to uphold GOP principles as Speaker of the House. The super PACs are calling, texting, emailing, lobbying, and all-out wining...

The GOP presidential candidates aren’t the only ones calling, texting, emailing, schmoozing and all-out lobbying the men and women likely to be delegates to the Republican National Convention. The deep-pocketed outside groups known as super PACs have joined the frantic, behind-the-scenes campaign now underway across the country to influence the 2,472 delegates poised to play an outsize role in what could be the Republican Party’s first contested convention in four decades.

Two days before Christmas, a trust called DE First Holdings was quietly formed in Delaware, where corporations are required to reveal little about their workings. A day later, the entity dropped $1 million into a super PAC with ties to Jersey City, N.J., Mayor Steven Fulop, a Democrat considering a gubernatorial bid. The trust, whose owner remains unknown, is part of a growing cadre of mystery outfits financing big-money super PACs. Many were formed just days or weeks before making six- or ­seven-figure contributions — an arrangement that election law experts say violates a long-standing federal ban on straw donors....

Two days before Christmas, a trust called DE First Holdings was quietly formed in Delaware, where corporations are required to reveal little about their workings. A day later, the entity dropped $1 million into a super PAC with ties to Jersey City, N.J., Mayor Steven Fulop, a Democrat considering a gubernatorial bid.The trust, whose owner remains unknown, is part of a growing cadre of mystery outfits financing big-money super PACs. Many were formed just days or weeks before making six- or ­seven-figure contributions — an arrangement that election law experts say violates a long-standing federal ban on straw donors. But...

If you’ve got money to burn, get into politics—as a donor giving millions to the big-money groups known as super PACs. Rich donors have transformed politics since the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision cleared the way for unlimited spending on behalf of favored candidates. Super PACs spent $609 million in the 2012 presidential election, with even greater spending expected in 2016. Most candidates feel it’s essential to woo 1 per centers and spend considerable time persuading them to give big. But a fat bank account doesn’t automatically buy victory, a lesson being hammered into wealthy donors this year. Wisconsin...

An unexpected burst of plain speaking recently swerved the race for the Democratic presidential nomination off the customary narrative. Howard Dean, the former head of the Democratic National Committee and candidate for the party's 2004 nomination, not only admitted but asserted that labor unions are super PACs. While on the campaign trail, Dean — a Hillary Clinton supporter — described unions as super PACs while attempting to counter suggestions that Clinton was beholden to Wall Street, after collecting significant sums for speeches at financial industry events. “Why does Hillary Clinton have to put up with a double standard?” Dean asked....

Ted Cruz's presidential bid is in turmoil after repeated allegations of unsavory campaign tactics by his Republican rivals, leading some key supporters to call for a shake-up in the candidate's message and strategy a week ahead of the crucial Super Tuesday primaries. Aides and allies of the insurgent senator from Texas acknowledged in interviews this week that the campaign has been damaged by attacks on Cruz's integrity from Donald Trump and Marco Rubio. They have pointed to a series of questionable tactics by the Cruz camp, including calls to voters suggesting that candidate Ben Carson was dropping out and the...

For Jeb Bush's loyalists, the first moment of palpable panic - and there would be more than they ever expected in the months to come - built over four days last May when their not-yet-presidential candidate struggled repeatedly to utter a one-word answer - No - to an utterly predictable question: Should the U.S. have invaded Iraq? -snip- From the start, the campaign hired extensively and paid handsomely. That money, though, couldn't come from Right to Rise, which had pulled off a record $103 million haul in six months. The campaign needed to raise the cash itself. It couldn't keep...

His campaign started out stuffed with money. By last July, Jeb Bush had raised $103 million for his super PAC, Right to Rise, an astonishing sum that seemed to foretell the most lavishly funded campaign in American history. No super PAC had ever raised so much cash so early in an election cycle. In fact, Right to Rise alone outraised all the super PACs combined at the same stage in the 2012 elections. Now, after primary elections in just three states, Bush is out. He finished sixth in the Iowa caucus, fourth in the New Hampshire primary, and now, fourth...

As former Florida governor Jeb Bush suspended his presidential bid Saturday night, new details were trickling in about the massive investments the Right to Rise super PAC made to prop up his candidacy. As of Saturday, the group had raced through at least $95.7 million out of the $118.6 million it had collected by the end of January, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Almost $87 million went into a barrage of television ads, online videos, slick mailers and voter phone calls. The group flew an airplane with a banner mocking Donald Trump over a rally of his supporters, produced...

A super PAC supporting Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign raised $2.5 million in January, including $1 million from tech billionaire Larry Ellison, according to a report filed Saturday with the Federal Election Commission. The donation from Ellison, the executive chairman of Oracle Corporation, brings his total spending on behalf of Rubio to $4 million, making him among the top donors of the 2016 cycle. Conservative Solutions PAC spent nearly $11 million last month, mostly on ads and direct mail attacking Rubio’s rival for the Republican presidential nomination Ted Cruz and his former rival Chris Christie, who has since dropped out. The...

Right to Rise, the "super PAC" supporting Jeb Bush that has dominated the ad-spending battle so far, has canceled up to a third of its ad reservations in March 1 primary states, according to media buying sources.

The senator's super PACs have launched an unprecedented ground effort in South Carolina and seem intent on going where few super PACs have gone before--door knocking. We all know super PACs have permanently changed the face of American politics. But in South Carolina, right now, we're getting a preview of the unprecedented ways they can alter a campaign. South Carolina, as you may know, is kind of a big deal. It has a large population--4.8 million people--and a bad reputation because it's a place where candidates love to break out their dirtiest tricks. Or, in the case of Ted Cruz's...

The senator's super PACs have launched an unprecedented ground effort in South Carolina and seem intent on going where few super PACs have gone before--door knocking. We all know super PACs have permanently changed the face of American politics. But in South Carolina, right now, we're getting a preview of the unprecedented ways they can alter a campaign. South Carolina, as you may know, is kind of a big deal. It has a large population--4.8 million people--and a bad reputation because it's a place where candidates love to break out their dirtiest tricks. Or, in the case of Ted Cruz's...

Does this qualify as a “gaffe” when defined in classic Washington terms? Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean sat down with Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC to talk about the New Hampshire primary and seems to have lost control of his better partisan senses for a moment. Mitchell was quizzing him about all the money that Hillary Clinton has taken from special interest groups though her Super PACs and her paid speaking engagements, relating these bits of history to recent attacks coming from Bernie Sanders’ campaign. Dean is one of Clinton’s most vocal (and frequently incomprehensible) supporters and he didn’t take kindly...

The bipartisan Open Secrets blog reported that a small number of Americans, led by George Soros, donated $100 million to Presidential Super PACs in the second half of 2015. Federal Election Commission filings of 21 different Super PACs supporting the top 13 major party candidates show "29 individuals or organizations who gave $1 million or more" for a total of $99.4 million collected in a six-month period. Adding in the 13 campaign committees, to total raised in the second half of 2015 was $260 million. Democrat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pocketed the largest individual single Super PAC donation...

Former Gov. Howard Dean (D-Vt.) said Friday that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) should not boast about his freedom from super-PACs given his ties with organized labor. 'I don't hear anybody asking Bernie Sanders for transcripts of some speech he made for a labor union,' he told host Andrea Mitchell on "MSNBC Live." "For Bernie to say he doesn't have a super-PAC…labor unions are super-PACs. Labor unions are super-PACs Democrats like so we don't go after labor unions."