As the race for control of Congress turns toward its final sprint to Election Day, independent organizations with stakes in the outcome are pouring record amounts of money into the closest contests – in some cases eclipsing the spending of the candidates themselves.
In Ohio, Rep. Deborah Pryce, the fourth-ranking Republican in the House, was attacked by nearly $1 million in negative commercials this summer. But her Democratic opponent, Franklin County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy, paid for none of them.
They were bankrolled instead by trial lawyers, labor unions and the liberal group MoveOn.org.
In fact, outside groups appear to have spent more in that period than Pryce and Kilroy combined, a pattern being duplicated in some of the nation’s most competitive campaigns.
Politically active groups on both the left and the right are shelling out dollars faster than in any previous midterm election and focusing them intensely on the races that are up for grabs.
Even with five weeks to go, the $34 million in “independent expenditures” so far is nearly double the amount spent in the entire 2002 midterm election, according to PoliticalMoneyLine.com.
This year’s figure includes spending by the parties’ House and Senate campaign committees, which unlike in 2002 are no longer allowed to coordinate directly with candidates for major ad buys, and by the “527” groups that emerged after an overhaul of funding laws that year.
Independent spending by political organizations was a defining force in the 2004 presidential campaign. What’s notable this time, with control of Congress and many governorships at stake, is how such spending has migrated to elections for lesser offices.
