E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
In just the three days since First Read reported that ad spending had reached $605.7 million this presidential campaign, another $25 million has been booked.
And notably, there’s a new major player on the scene – Americans for Job Security, a shadowy group with no requirement to disclose its donors. It booked $8.7 million – in its first buy this presidential cycle – in six battleground states: FL, OH, VA, IA, CO, and NC.
Its dark-and-gloomy ad (from its website) depicts a baby in a crib looking up at a cracked ceiling as an announcer asks: “What are his hopes, his future? Under the path we were on, it’s darker, weaker, less secure. All because our president has no plan to balance the budget ever. Obama wants to raise the debt ceiling by trillions, so he can pay for his reckless spending. Sign the petition, saying no to a debt-ceiling increase, because at some point, the ceiling will break.”
Americans for Job Security is classified as a 501(c)(6) “business league,” according to its website. “Under the law, this type of organization is designed to promote the ‘common business interests’ of its members,” it says.
The Alexandria, Va.-based group purports to be an “independent, bi-partisan, pro-business issue advocacy organization,” but it’s run by the former head of the New Hampshire Republican Party, and it ran ads supporting Scott Brown (R-MA) and against Bill Halter (D) in Arkansas in 2010. It has also played in GOP Senate primaries, running ads against Pete Hoekstra (R) in the Michigan governor’s race, against Jane Norton (R) for Colorado Senate, and Rep. Gresham Barrett (R) in the South Carolina governor’s race.
FactCheck.org points out that it “does not disclose its donors. It says only that its members are ‘businesses, business leaders and entrepreneurs.’”
It also notes the group's run-in with the Federal Election Commission in 2008:
“In 2008, staff lawyers for the Federal Election Commission saw ‘reason to believe’ that AJS had violated federal election law by, among other things, failing to register as a political committee and failing to disclose its donors. But in 2009 the three Republican commissioners on the FEC blocked any action, voting to dismiss the case while the three Democratic commissioners voted to pursue it. Since a majority is required for the FEC to act, the partisan 3-3 deadlock killed any enforcement action against AJS. When the Supreme Court later struck down longstanding federal laws against campaign spending by corporations and labor unions, AJS President DeMaura told the Wall Street Journal the decision was an ‘unequivocal victory’ for those ‘who believe in free speech and the rights of organizations such as ours to promote our point of view.’
“Since its inception AJS says it has raised nearly $60 million and run more than 90 different TV spots in 46 states and the District of Columbia. [Stephen] DeMaura [its president] told FactCheck.org that as of mid-August [2010], the group had spent $6.3 million in the 2010 election cycle, but he would not say what the group expected to spend during the remainder of the election campaign.”
In all this election, more than $630 million has been spent on TV and radio ads by the presidential campaigns and outside groups.
Team Romney (groups supporting Republican Mitt Romney, including Super PACs, the campaigns and other groups) has outspent Team Obama $338 million to $292 million.
Leave a Comment:
Amazingly every penny add'd to the debt by Obama can easily be shown to have
origonated with Bush, The Bush taxcuts alone account for $2 trillion, Bush's wars
account for over $1 trillion, The expanded Military budget nearly $2 trillion.
Blaming Obama does not change the facts
Bo, are you really that clueless? Dumbest post of the week.
Obama is not responsible at all for the 6 trillion in debt under his alleged leadership. Freaking absurd.
Bob, you are a moron. Do you even have a clue what went on during the Bush (Cheney) years?!
Here, google and read this...
Rolling Stones magazine "How the GoP Became the Party of the Rich"
Quit being a brain-washed Fox news GoP pond.
They 50 or so who have been funding all this stuff are desperate now. Their whole plan to leave the economy trashed, to blame it all Obama and the Democrats, to drive the economy into ruin in order to try to create a permanent Republican majority, in short, the whole Rove plan has backfired and failed. They created all this misery and pain for absolutely nothing.
I hope it hurts, the damned elitist un-American criminals.
They've gotten all the Republicans beholden to them and kicked out all the ones with ethics by funding candidates that would kowtow to them. Almost every Republican still in government is one of the cattle.
It doesn't matter how much they spend, the major portion of Americans know what kind of person Romney is, they don't believe him at all and his numbers continue to prove that. Now he's loosing the swing states, Latest polling shows a 76% chance Obama will be re-elected.
Seams Ann Romney just had a minor meltdown on a Iowa Radio station
Republicans for Obama
Because the GOP can't seam to put anyone up there worthy of voting for!
That's because they have been driving all the worthy ones out of politics. Worthy people don't support their agenda and their dupes are easily convinced to oppose them.
Jay - Oh Ann wonderful Ann - when Willard was in France she was going out with another man and when she heard he wanted to be a Professor - she sent a je t'aime letter to Willard and he came running back - shortly thereafter they were married
A Professor's wife - god forbid
Maybe I can call myself a 501(b) on my income taxes. I have opinions that I feely share with others and my time is valuable.
If you can afford the lawyers, you probably can
And so it starts. One of the main problems for the GOP attack machine is that they have been relentlessly calling Obama a muslim, foreigner, and a socialist for three years. What more can they say now? The populace is so inured to these attacks that I predict they will have little or no influence at all.
I think you're right. They've been at this for three and a half years, they aren't going to be influencing any new voters. Seems like a waste of money, but these are business leaders and entepreneurs, like they don't know how to waste money
RomneyRyan/Norquist/Adelson/GOP/Koch and associates will set up a government FOR the corporations, BY the corporations. Tax cuts and de-regulation, are the Shangri-La of the Republican party and its corporate associates. We the People are NOWHERE on the GOP radar.
American Crossroads, Karl Rove’s Super PAC, is going up with tens of millions of dollars of attacks aimed directly at Democratic House candidates. Rove isn’t stupid. He sees Romney’s floundering campaign. Now, he’s shifting cash into House races so Republicans will still have one card to play against President Obama.
“If Barack Obama wins this election, the Republican Party as we know it is finished,” Fischer said. “It is dead, it is toast, you can stick a fork in it.”
That’s why this is so important. President Obama needs a Democratic House to be able to make real progress in his second term. As well as re-electing President Obama, we need to get rid of every one of these do nothing for anyone Senators on the Right so we can get the Job Bills they voted down, Veterans benefits they voted down, clean air they voted down, get our teachers, cops and fireman back they fired and go to work on our credit rating again that they ruined by acting like children and despicable, self serving hypocrites!
Pretty freakin nauseating
"Americans for Job Security, a shadowy group "
Would the Obama poodles at First Read call a similiar pro-Obama group "shadowy"?
Nope.
"This Election, in my view, is a Fight For The Heart And Soul Of America." (Biden) I (JRM) say, "Yes, we can ! Yes, we MUST! OBAMA / BIDEN 2012!!!!!!"
Kiss your country and the constitution goodbye folks. The elections from here on out will be bought and paid for by corporations. You idiots who use this forum to blast the president, and turn a blind eye to Romney and what he stands for, will be the first to cry when the facsists rule your dismal life.
Be prepared for a final onslaught of republican negative campaigning between now and November 5th. They're desperate and will stoop to anything, yes ANYTHING, to win this election. 'The 'Party of No' can also be called 'The 'Party of Swill'.
Problem it was a 2009 - and in a tiny one line blurb they said sorry
Unless and until the Supreme Court revisits and revises Citizens United, we are always in danger of having the best government money can buy.
Old Vet - Clarence Thomas should be impeached - he is a lying piece of dung
He lied at his hearings - and maybe we should re-visit those lies - Anita Hill would have made a better Supreme Court Judge - she had more credentials than him
Wouldn't that be a hoot - if she became a Supreme Court Judge - my fondest dreams come true
The 50 or so bigwigs may realize Mitt (dog-on-the-car-roof) Romney is going to lose the November election and refuse to supply him with money soon. Then again, they may try a big cash push as the October surprise.
For the American people to allow the GREEDY SUPER RICH to purchase the White House would be a disaster.
The Mittster has showed his true colors and no amount of trying (or lying) will convince the voter otherwise.
Vote OBAMA/BIDEN 2012 and ANY non GOP candidates down the ballot. POTUS deserves a second term with a CHASTISED but LOYAL minority party that will work WITH him and NOT AGAINST EVERYTHING.
Watch some GOP TROLL attacks with more LIES, DISTORTIONS, DEFLECTIONS and INSULTS. They do it so well!
Hilarious...rotflmao. He had that for 2 years. And what was the problem then? Can we please have the Univision reporters moderate the debates? About time a reporter asked some real questions. Did you get your tongue untied Mr. POSPOTUS
We in the upper 1% are getting desperate in this election. Like Mitt Romney, we don't want to pay more than 13% of our income in federal income taxes. So please help us out by voting for him. If you're in the middle-class income level—i.e., families who make $200,000 to $250,000 per year—then Romney's your man. If you're poorer than that, well, you obviously want to live on the public dole, so don't bother to vote Republican. Just remember that, as Rick Santorum said this week, the "smart people" will never be on the side of Republicans.
nimble - cute and I as a 1% with my yacht registered with a Cayman Islands Flag agree - dam those Americans who the hell do they think they are?
What America - we want Right to Work laws - don't you love that title - catchy isn't it? Who doesn't want the right to work at minimum wages?
All of us should - to hell with Henry Ford when he said I want to pay my employees a wage that they all can afford to buy my cars
How out of step he was - hell we can all afford the garbage that China is sending us and if your dog dies - do what get another dog
I really love being the 1% - but if I have to I'll get dual citizenship with another country like Michelle Bachmann, Joe Lieberman - and our fellow Congressman Eric Cantor
You are subsidizing your own demise by investing in the market. You don't care how a stock makes money, as long as it does. And then you invest. You invest in the company that just cut the american payroll by 20% so they could raise the stock price a dollar. But you don't care because it's making you money. Then you whine about the evil corporate greed as you buy Chinese products because they are cheaper. America is full of morons investing themselves out of jobs. We really do need a better education system!
Thank YOU Freedom Hound ! I have long contended that the 401k was and still is the biggest job killer of all time! And, if I recall correctly, legislation has recently been passed that "automatically" enrolls employees in the 401k of the company (if they have one). This is nothing more than forced enslavement to stockholders. And it is done with absolutely zero guarantee of any return.
Another point is that companies with 401k plans usually offer a defined set of funds the money can be put into and most even go so far as to setting limits on how much an employee can put into company stock. I encourage everyone to dig a bit deeper into that 'defined set'...and you will most probably find that all of those funds have roads right back to the employer.
401k's are the biggest financial fraud ever perpetrated. NO guarantee of return and a perpetual job killer!
Get out and vote; please do register as a registered voter. And vote on 11/6/2012.
The groups to which the registered voters do not worry may offer financial support to the GOP; and that is not new.
However, the recalling of the counting every single vote in FL about a decade ago, between the race of the former President Bush and the former Vice President Gore, has counted every single vote. And the former President Bush just won a little margin.
Therefore, registered voters please do vote, and please do not worry about the financial giant. Vote on 11/6/2012.
Desperation from leftist douchebags. The yowling is reaching a crescendo. The phony slanted polls won't help Ostumbler. This just in- the redistributionist in chief, Barack Hussein will release his cousin the Blind Sheik to Egyptian custody if he's reelected (one and done, no chance of reelection) and Ostumbler's good buddies Tawana Brawley and Al Sharpton hung a chair. LOL
The stealth commies hate "shadowy" Americans who exercise their right to free speech.
In Nov. the Kenyan Kalamity will be joining Jimmy Crater and David Rinky Dinkins in Chinese Fire Drill heaven.
So, for all we know, Americans for Job Security could be exactly what it says it is, or it could be the political arm of the Ku Klux Klan or some neo-Nazi group. There's just no way to tell. If anyone or any group is going to put up political ads on broadcast media, we voters should have the right to know exactly who or what is behind that ad. Otherwise you have the situation where voters are having important information withheld from them. Free speech is all well and good, but at least we can demand that the "speakers" pull off their masks.
Do they call you the lumberjack? Cause that was quite a hatchet job! Both campaigns accepting money from superpacs, but somehow Romney is the only scumbag. Try to be a journalist.
No amount of 1% money or dirt commercials will change the outcome of the elections this year...
Dems win House
Dems win Senate
Obama/Biden win
Americans for Job Security OFFShore androids.Americans for Job Security securely in INDIA and CHINA Republican patriotism.The Burqa Republican Security.
Karl Rove, like many enemies of the United States, forgot one very important point, "Don't wake-up the sleeping dog". Perhaps Karl Rove and the TEA Party forgot that Americans, real Americans, can get hissy when they realize that millions of dollars are being spent to proclaim them "Stupid". Very soon, Karl Rove and Mitt Romney will announce their plan to tax the wealthy, and the house of cards will come tumbling down. How many horses can these guys ride in on before Americans realize that Rove-Ryan-Romney may have the cowboy hats, however the cattle drive needs cows.
This has got Rove DNA On it!!
Your point is well taken, but you FAILED AGAIN to tell the REAL TRUTH! The truth is it was your corrupt Republican OIL & FINANCIAL corporate MONARCHY that brought on our economic collapse & worse than that the global economic collapse! It's either SPEND or go into OUR 2nd Depression now instead of next year, so stop your lying and have your "DO-NOTHING" INFILTRATED "HAND-PICKED" political puppets in Congress get off their dead axxs THAT THE 99% American People are paying dearly for!!
RoseII
Apparently you are the one who is uninformed. It was the AIG ponzy scheme that brought on our economy collapse.
What: Also two unpaid for wars! Cheney: "Debt doesn't matter".
You may want to check your facts moron. This whole financial calamity would have been avoided if your boy "Slick Willie" and his henchmen Larry Sommers, Hank Paulson, Tim Geithner. & alan Greenspan would have listenend to Brooksley Born. She brought the issue with what these financial swaps were going to do to all of them. They laughed at her. She ended up resigning, as they were going to close her down. You may know who these names are, as they are or were part of this POSPOTUS cabinet. WAY TO GO DUMBOCRAPS