SuperPAC Roundup: Groups Will Boost Presidential Candidates
Unlimited-money organizations will propel both GOP contenders and Barack Obama in the 2012 election cycle
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The independent fundraising groups, which can gather and spend unlimited amounts of money to run ads in support of a candidate, first made headlines for backing Republican candidates in the 2010 congressional elections. Now, they are planning to go even bigger; all of the leading presidential candidates currently in the field already have super PACs working to boost their candidacies:
- Make Us Great Again PAC, supporting Texas Gov. Rick Perry, was founded by Perry's former chief of staff Mike Toomey. The group plans to spend $55 million.
- Restore Our Future, a super PAC backing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, raised $20 million from January through June. Charles Spies, the group's treasurer, was general counsel for Romney during his 2008 White House run.
- Keeping Conservatives United, which supports Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., is already spending money on television advertising.
- Priorities USA, a group backing President Obama's reelection, was created by former White House aides Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney.
- Priorities USA Action, the sister group of Priorities USA, allows its donors to remain anonymous.
- American Crossroads, a GOP group affiliated with former Bush political director Karl Rove, has raised $25 million this year and has spent more than $1 million on ads in special elections across the nation as well as to influence the debates surrounding the debt ceiling, and Obama's American Jobs Act.