Meet American Bridge, Democrats’ answer to the ‘shadow GOP’

Democrats are officially launching their own outside-money push ahead of the 2012 presidential campaign.

Media Matters founder and author David Brock plans to file paperwork Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission detailing plans to raise and spend unlimited funds to influence the upcoming election.

The group will be called American Bridge, and Brock tells the New York Times' Michael Luo that he's already gotten $4 million in pledges from Democratic donors including Rob McKay, heir to the Taco Bell fortune, and longtime TV producer Marcy Carsey, best known as the executive producer of "The Cosby Show."

The chairwoman of American Bridge will be Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the former lieutenant governor of Maryland and daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy.

The group will be filed as a so-called 527 political group under the Internal Revenue Service tax code, which means it will disclose its donors. But Brock hints to Luo that he'll also follow the lead of outside conservative groups (known to critics as the shadow GOP) like Crossroads GPS, which as a 501-c4 political organization does not report its source of funds. According to initial plans, the Media Matters Action Network, a 501-c4 already associated with Brock, is set to take on an expanded role in the 2012 elections, including potentially running TV ads, Luo reports.

"Money is money," Brock told the Times.

The big question is how the White House will react. While President Obama discouraged outside spending on his behalf during the 2008 campaign, administration officials in recent weeks have given the thumbs up to Democrats looking to compete with GOP outside groups, which spent millions to influence the 2010 elections.

Still, it's not clear whether the administration has explicitly approved groups that plan to operate without disclosing donors. Obama attacked groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for not making its donor list public while it spent tens of millions on political ads attacking Democrats. It would be a significant flip-flop on Obama's behalf if he appears to be giving the OK to Democrats to pursue similar politicking on his behalf in 2012.

But Brock isn't the only Democrat plotting outside efforts in the 2012 campaign. A group of liberal donors met last week in Washington to discuss outside efforts. And on Monday, the operatives behind America Coming Together, a 527 group that spent millions to boost John Kerry in 2004, also held talks about the upcoming campaign.

(Photo of Brock: Marty Lederhandler/AP)