Having failed to reform campaign finance disclosure rules as Republicans sailed to midterm victory on outside spending, President Obama will rely on some help from an independent group in 2012. The Center for Public Integrity's Peter Stone reports today that the still-unnamed Obama-backing money organization will try to raise figures comparable to American Crossroads, the GOP-aligned group it's designed to counter:

Three former Obama administration officials have set an ambitious goal of raising $100 million to $200 million to underwrite an outside group to help President Obama win a second term. ...

The new group is expected to be the main Democratic vehicle to compete with American Crossroads and its affiliate which with sizable help from GOP consultants Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie raised $71 million to help Republicans win back the House last year. The two Crossroads groups have said they are aiming to raise $120 million for their 2012 efforts which will include television ads and get out vote blitzes.

Read the full story at Public Integrity's money and politics blog, Paper Trail.