[EL] Super PACs and the Presidency

[Mark Schmitt]

I agree with that point, Steve, and always have.

I would suggest, however, that one reason that the pro-Romney SuperPACs and
c(4)'s had less impact than some expected is that they seem to have put all
their money on broadcast media and to a lesser extent robocalls and mail.
What if some of the money had been put toward voter mobilization efforts,
targetted at key likely-Romney constituencies? Much of the Democratic
non-campaign spending takes this form.

Why didn't that happen? My guess is that it's a combination of two things:
Rich donors want something they can see, like an ad that they imagine will
reveal that Kenyan socialist for what he is and destroy him, rather than
the amorphous idea that some people are out there getting people to vote.
And second, the operatives who created the SuperPACs and c(4)'s are getting
very, very rich off of media-buying commissions (richer than they would get
if they were actually working for the campaign, which followed Obama's lead
from 2008 in cracking down on commissions), and had no interest in giving
that up. Hence, as pointed out in another thread, they were essentially
burning off money on national ad buys in the last week.

If it weren't for greed, Citizens United and SpeechNow might have had more
impact.

Mark Schmitt
Senior Fellow, The Roosevelt Institute <http://www.rooseveltinstitute.org/>
202/246-2350
gchat or Skype: schmitt.mark
twitter: mschmitt9



On Tue, Nov 6, 2012 at 11:52 PM, Steve Hoersting <hoersting at gmail.com>wrote:

> To those who read this e-mail as predicting a Romney win, fair enough: If
> that is the way you read it, I was incorrect.
>
> But as to my main point (and one directed at an election law list) -- to
> not blame the Super PACs; they were never the President's problem -- I
> stand by it. There were always plenty of independent players and funds
> supporting Team Obama.
>
> I still believe the President ebbed in his reelection effort -- and no one
> doubts that today's race was close; too close for a well-liked incumbent --
> because of an Obama agenda of what I called earlier today and continue to
> call "out-sized collectivism."
>
> Congratulations to the compliance team and strategists at Perkins Coie,
>
> Steve
>
> On Tue, Nov 6, 2012 at 11:10 AM, Steve Hoersting <hoersting at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Should, by this time tomorrow, President Obama fail to win re-election,
>> as now seems the case, many will point to a point made by *Politico* on
>> August 20th of this year:
>>
>> Obama has himself to blame for what has, arguably, been the greatest
>> unforced error of his political career: his team's failure to adequately
>> form a strategy to deal with the avalanche of unregulated cash raining down
>> on him from GOP and Romney-allied Super PACs.
>>
>>
>> As one who started blogging against the FEC political-committee
>> regulations that would kill the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and six other
>> notable organizations on the Right and Left, and as one who worked on some
>> of the cases that would bring Americans the "Super PAC" -- and there were
>> four or five cases responsible, not just two -- it is tempting to want to
>> echo emphatically the *Politico* commentary: *You're darn right.*
>>
>> But the commentary doesn't hold. While I understand the role of freed
>> speech in this election, and the importance of increasingly alternative
>> committees speaking in an increasing alternative media, I recognize that
>> the real reason the President ebbs in his reelection effort is his
>> inability to cloak an out-sized collectivism in American garb.
>>
>> No one could pull that off. It is regrettable he tried,
>>
>> --
>> Stephen M. Hoersting
>>
>> http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0812/79867.html
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Stephen M. Hoersting
>
>
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