With Mitt Romney now having locked in the delegates he needs to be the GOP presidential nominee, the fall campaign is truly on. And the money spent is going to be enormous. Through April, President Obama and the Democratic groups supporting him had raised nearly $450 million during the election cycle. And Politico predicts that GOP groups are likely to spend roughly $1 billion related to the presidential and congressional races. Politico reports that groups affiliated with the Koch brothers “will spend the most of any outside outfit on either side: roughly $395 million for issue and political advocacy by groups they support – twice the amount they previously had been expected to commit.” What has the GOP groups ready to open the floodgates? The Politico article concludes: First, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in “Citizens United made it easy and less risky for rich donors to get back in the game. Second, a subsequent lower court case paved the way for the creation of super PACs, giving mega-donors arguably the most effective vehicle for funding ads in the modern campaign finance era. Third and perhaps most important, Obama scared many free-market millionaires into action with what they perceive as his outright hostility to capitalism.”
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