Heading into Super Tuesday, spending by super PACs aligned with presidential candidates has surpassed spending by all super PACs in the 2010 mid-term election. To date, super PACs aligned with one of the 2012 White House hopefuls have spent more than $66 million, an iWatch News analysis of data filed with the Federal Election Commission has found. Notably, the pro-Mitt Romney super PAC “Restore Our Future” accounts for almost 50 percent of this spending. The super PAC has spent more than $32 million so far this election, nearly all of it on ads bashing his opponents. That’s nearly twice as much as the $16 million spent by pro-Newt Gingrich “Winning Our Future.” And it’s roughly six times as much as the $5.3 million spent by the pro-Rick Santorum “Red, White and Blue Fund.”
In the hopes of drowning out Romney’s challengers, Restore Our Future is ramping up its post-Super Tuesday investments as well.
BuzzFeed Politics reported Monday that Restore Our Future purchased $750,000 of ad time in Illinois and also made a $457,000 ad buy in Louisiana, states which will hold their primaries in the third week of March. These buys put Restore Our Future’s total expenditures across the $32 million threshold. In 2010, all super PACs spent $65 million, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
Full Article: Super Tuesday brings super PAC spending milestone | iWatch News by The Center for Public Integrity.