The conservative alliance grew out of a meeting at Mr. Rove's Washington home in April. Nineteen independent expenditure groups, old and new, were represented. The result was an extraordinary division of labor and the sharing of spending plans and political data. American Crossroads, for example, paid the Republican National Committee $1.5 million for a micro-targeted voter file and immediately shared the information.
Independent groups are not permitted to "coordinate" with candidates or their campaigns. So they watch for signals of what candidates and party committees are planning and try to avoid duplication, particularly in airing TV spots.
Many of the new groups are targeting the House. Scott Reed, the strategist who managed Bob Dole's presidential campaign in 1996, established the Commission on Hope, Growth, and Opportunity this summer. He expects to raise $25 million to help underfunded Republican candidates regain control of the House. Another newly formed group, the American Action Network headed by former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman, may spend $15 million or more. Two other groups, the 60 Plus Association and Americans for Job Security, are running TV ads against vulnerable Democrats like House veteran Rich Boucher of Virginia.
American Crossroads, meanwhile, is concentrating on 11 Senate races. It has spent heavily in Missouri on behalf of Roy Blunt, who leads Democrat Robin Carnahan 52% to 44% in the latest Rasmussen poll. The group intends to defend Mr. Blunt against attack ads for his being a "Washington insider," his support of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, and even for buying a house in Georgetown. "Roy Blunt has on boxing gloves and Robin Carnahan has knives out," an AC spokesman says.
Since Obama took office, ten of the most active conservative donors identified by a POLITICO analysis have contributed $19 million to Republican candidates and the political committees that boost them — a pace that far eclipses their giving at this point in the 2006 and 2008 election cycles, according to professional fundraisers, as well as anything big Democratic donors have done.
The numbers analyzed by POLITICO — compiled from campaign finance reports filed with the Internal Revenue Service, Federal Election Commission and various state campaign finance agencies — reflect personal donations as well as contributions from immediate family members and their corporations.
But the tally does not take into account the money these donors may be giving to the proliferation of right-leaning groups registered under section 501(c)4 of the IRS code — the groups that Obama attacked last week for airing a “flood of deceptive attack ads sponsored by special interests using front groups with misleading names.” By law, the groups aren’t required to reveal their contributors’ identities — only their overall fundraising tallies and expenditures months, and only months after Election Day.
