GOP-leaning groups spent more, won more
WASHINGTON — Republican-leaning political organizations spent $167 million on the midterm elections and came out on the winning side of almost twice as many races as they lost.
GOP operative Karl Rove’s American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS backed the victor in 23 of the 36 House and Senate races where a winner was declared. American Action Network, which shared space with the Crossroads groups, won 14 races and lost 10. The nation’s biggest business lobby, the US Chamber of Commerce, supported the winning candidate in 38 of 59 contests in a year dominated by voter concerns about the economy and joblessness.
The election was the first since the Supreme Court reversed decades of precedent and said corporations could spend unlimited sums on federal races. Companies and wealthy individuals funneled millions into outside groups, many of which didn’t disclose their donors.
Republican-leaning groups spent $167 million between Sept. 1 and Oct. 31 in support of their party’s nominees, compared with $68 million by Democratic-leaning organizations, Federal Election Commission reports show.
In the 10 races the Republican groups spent the most money on, the party entered the winner’s circle six times. Among the winners: Senate candidates Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania and Mark Kirk in Illinois, and former Nevada state senator Joe Heck in a Las Vegas-area congressional district.
