Super PACs herald a punishing campaign season

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Source: Wash. Post

Millions of dollars in political advertising from independent groups supporting the Republican presidential candidates are adding another element of unpredictability to an already topsy-turvy nomination contest.

A group backing Mitt Romney, known as Restore Our Future, on Thursday launched a $3.1 million advertising campaign that will run in Iowa over the next three weeks. Earlier this week, Make Us Great Again, a group supporting Texas Gov. Rick Perry, reported spending $577,000.

The spending underscores the rapid rise of “super PACs” and their prominence in the 2012 campaign: the $1 million spent so far by independent groups in the GOP primary is four times greater than it was at this point in 2008, according to ad tracking data from Kantar Media.

But all of that independent spending also can mean that voters are getting hit with a lot of different, and sometimes confusing, messages. That stems in part from campaign laws that ban independent groups from coordinating their strategies with the candidates or their campaigns.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/super-pacs-herald-a-punishing-campaign-season/2011/12/08/gIQAEiHPgO_singlePage.html

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1. just hope these PACs spend themselves into the ground before the general election

the rats need to eat their own lots during this primary season :evilgrin: