#outside spending

Outside spenders have disclosed as much money over the last three weeks as they had over the previous five months. Filings during the first week of October set a new outside spending record for this election cycle. Listen to who spent what on today's show. Enjoy!

While outside spending this week was far from a deluge, a steady sprinkle of disclosures marked this third week of April. Outside spending aside, it was a big week for elections and the independent political expenditure world. Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy for the Office of the President. Then Ms. Clinton said she would back an constitutional amendment roll back some of the recent campaign finance law changes (this is despite her campaign being willing to take money from all comers - super PAC, 501c4 dark money groups alike). Not to be outdone by Hills, a daredevil of a man landed a flying machine on the capital lawn to draw attention to the wonders of aviation, I mean campaign finance reform. Throughout it all, outside spenders started to file some outside spending with the FEC. Here are the quick hits from yesterday’s disclosures. 

The roundup: Two groups disclosed $60K targeting two candidates in two elections. 

Hey big spender: The Republican National Committee (RNC) and the American Dental Association Independent Expenditure Committee (IEC) dropped cash on Friday. 

The RNC disbursed $33.4K on printing expenses opposing Hillary Clinton. While it is impossible to ascertain what this ‘printing’ expense actually purchased, they used a company with offices in Cleveland and Chicago, Stuart & Associates, for the job. As we’ve covered in previous entires, the RNC was dormant in 2014 but dropped $43 million during the 2012 cycle - all supporting Mitt Romney or opposing Barack Obama. With this disclosure, the RNC is the current 2016 election disclosure amount leader with a total of $145K. 

The American Dental Association IEC allocated nearly $26K on direct mail products supporting Mississippi 1st Congressional District special election candidate, Ed Holliday (R). In the 2014 cycle, this super PAC was a small outside spender, disclosing only $386K. All of their cash supported two victorious Republican candidates for the House, Mike Simpson (ID) and Brian Babin (TX). 

Who’s on top? So far, 6 groups have disclosed a total of $246K. All the groups are supporting Republican or opposing Democratic candidates. Pro-Democratic Party groups have yet to file any outside expenditures. 

Public Campaign President Nick Nyhart, explaining one of the major problems with our current system (Al Jazeera).

Outside groups are pouring money into California Congressional Races.

This is not an election we can take off:

Spending by political parties and other interest groups in some of California’s hottest congressional races continued to climb over the last week, in one case even surpassing what the candidates have raised for their campaigns.

  The groups are not allowed to coordinate with the candidates’ campaigns but are spending independently on TV ads, mailers and…

2014 Outside Spending Hits the $100 Million Mark

It's official. Outside spending groups like super PACs and political nonprofits have spent $100 million so far on the 2014 election -- and it's not even June yet.