The news reports I have seen suggest two , more subtle ways that CU may be increasing corporate spending.  The first is spending by corporations that pre-CU avoided any election-related spending because it was not cost effective for it to hire sophisticated election lawyers to help them craft ads that avoided express advocacy and its functional equivalent.  Having been on conference calls with up to six lawyers parsing through election-related ads, I can certainly understand the pre-CU reluctance to start that meter running.  After CU, however, such corporations now only have to worry about complying with the disclosure requirements. 

 

The second is targeted spending, where a corporation focuses its resources on a race it has identified as critical for its interests.  Think Capteron, except with Massey buying the independent expenditure ads, not its CEO.