A network of Democratic outside groups designed to offset the fundraising juggernaut conceived last year by Karl Rove is off to a slow start, pulling in a combined $10 million in the first half of the year, while leaning heavily on big contributions from labor unions and Hollywood, according to campaign reports filed with the Federal Election Commission Friday evening.
By contrast, one of the key groups in Rove’s GOP-allied constellation, Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, will have spent more than $20 million on television ads ripping Democrats by the end of August, and – combined with a sister group called American Crossroads – intends to spend $120 million before the 2012 election.
The Crossroads groups raised $70 million for their advertising efforts in the 2010 midterm campaign, prompting Democrats to form their own network of groups in recent months.
The Democratic network comprises so-called super PACs including Priorities USA, American Bridge 21st Century, Majority PAC and House Majority PAC – all of which are required to disclose their donors and other finances to the FEC – and a connected network of groups registered under a section of the Internal Revenue Service code – 501(c)4 – that allows them to keep their donors secret.
In total, the groups raised $10 million in the first half of the year, according to a joint press release.
As of late Friday, American Bridge, which plans campaign-style opposition research on Republican candidates, and Majority PAC, which intends to air ads boosting Democratic Senate candidates, filed reports with the FEC showing that they had raised $1.6 million and $1.1 million, respectively, in the first six months of the year.
The biggest reported contributor was Hollywood producer Steve Bing, who gave a combined $400,000 to the two groups ($150,000 to American Bridge and $250,000 to Majority PAC), followed by the Service Employees International Union, which gave $350,000 ($100,000 to American Bridge and $250,000 to Majority PAC).
Liberal insurance tycoon Peter Lewis gave $200,000 to American Bridge, which was created by David Brock, the conservative journalist-turned liberal activist who founded the watchdog group Media Matters, which also has received funding from Lewis in the past.
Other notable donors to American Bridge include American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees ($100,000), Taco Bell heir Rob McKay ($50,000) and Hollywood producers J.J. Abrams and Kathleen McGrath, who gave $37,500 each.
Notable donors to Majority PAC include Baron & Budd, the Dallas law firm founded by the late trial lawyer Fred Baron, a leading fundraiser for former Sen. John Edwards’s presidential campaigns who admitted two months before his August 2008 death that he had made payments to Edwards’s mistress Rielle Hunter. Baron & Budd gave $25,000, while public radio show host Garrison Keillor gave $250.
Read More: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/60280.html
Politico/ Vogel/ 07/30/2011
In slow start, Democratic super PACS lean on Hollywood, labor
FLatinConnect/ Arnoldo Varona,Editor
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