Nearly $70 Million Spent To Oppose Barack Obama in August

In the month of August, a staggering $104,905,910 was spent by Super PACs over a total of 6,520 transactions.

Of this $105 million, $68,168,355 was spent to oppose President Barack Obama. This compares to the relatively small $7,273,970 that was spent by Super PACs to oppose Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

The ten most active Super PACs in August were:

Americans for Prosperity, $33,961,583
RESTORE OUR FUTURE, INC., $20,238,983
REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE, $11,015,312
Priorities USA Action, $6,144,942
Majority PAC, $4,462,093
NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE, $2,206,633
Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, $1,960,550
DEMOCRATIC SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE, $1,940,706
WOMEN VOTE!, $1,938,583
CLUB FOR GROWTH ACTION, $1,428,376

The top four Super PACs on this list all oppose Barack Obama, while the "Majority PAC" is dedicated to "maintaining the Democratic majority in the Senate".

The top ten single expenditures of August by Super PACs were:

RESTORE OUR FUTURE, INC. spent $9,856,375 to oppose OBAMA, BARACK
Type: Media Buy

RESTORE OUR FUTURE, INC. spent $9,856,375 to oppose OBAMA, BARACK
Type: Media Buy; also supports Mitt Romney

AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY spent $6,633,440 to oppose Obama, Barack
Type: Advertising-TV placement (Tick Tock)

AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY spent $6,503,104 to oppose Obama, Barack
Type: Advertising-TV placement (Still Believe)

REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE spent $3,849,903 to oppose Barack, Obama
Type: Media Placement

REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE spent $3,699,743 to oppose Barack, Obama
Type: Media Placement

AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY spent $3,520,081 to oppose Obama, Barack
Type: Advertising-TV placement (New Ideas)

REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE spent $3,316,797 to oppose Barack, Obama
Type: Media Placement

Priorities USA Action spent $2,124,605 to oppose Romney, Mitt
Type: Media TV Advertising Buy

AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY spent $1,900,432 to oppose Obama, Barack
Type: Advertising-TV placement (Still Believe)

Let's take a look at some of the ads that were placed by these Super PACs.

Here is a debt clock ad courtesy of "Americans for Prosperity":



Here is "Debate" from Restore our Future, Inc.:



Here is "Another Month" from Restore Our Future, Inc.:



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Super PACs are a relatively new beast - you can read a definition of a Super PAC here.

The main fact to know is that Super PACs can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to support or oppose a candidate for office, as long as they don't coordinate directly with candidates or political parties.

Tens of millions of dollars pour into Super PACs every month, which leads to some very large expenditures, as you can see above.

Source: SuperPAC Spending

Source: FEC.gov

Filed under: General Knowledge