Which Party Did More Secret Spending This Election Season?

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/11/04/dark-money-politics?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2014-11-05

Millions of dollars went toward campaign television ads and other political causes, but one party outdid the other on dark money.

November 04, 2014 By Shaya Tayefe Mohajer

TakePart News Editor Shaya Tayefe Mohajer is a journalist who has worked in many corners of the world for major news organizations.




In an election year when liberal billionaires topped the list for most individual Super PAC spending—notably, billionaire-turned-climate-change-activist Tom Steyer alone gave more than $73 million this year—there's one (admittedly teensy by comparison) category where Republicans are still outspending Democrats: dark money.

These funds are spent by politically active groups that don't disclose their donors, so they are basically a good place to spend political capital for people who don't want to actually expend political capital if their views are unfavorable to the broader public.

So, hypothetically, if Chick-fil-A's leaders wanted to hide their deeply felt opposition to gay marriage because they worried it would sink their chicken biscuit sales among more liberal consumers, they could quietly give a bunch of money to a political action group that opposes it without ever having the donation traced back.

The Sunlight Foundation reports that since June of this year, "overall, Republican-leaning dark money groups have spent $94.6 million, while Democratic-leaning groups have spent $28.4 million."

FULL story at link.

[merrily]

1. If I gave money to Republicans, I'd be ashamed, too.