GOP rides cavalry to U.S. Senate majority
Editor’s note: The Center for Public Integrity tracked political advertising in races for the U.S. Senate, state-level offices and state ballot measures. Use these three interactive features to see who was calling the shots and where the money was spent.
Republican candidates wagered that big bucks from outside political groups could overcome their own fundraising shortfalls ahead of the 2014 midterm elections.
They were right. On Tuesday night, Republicans won control of the U.S. Senate for the first time in eight years.
In many of the states the GOP won Tuesday, Republican candidates themselves didn’t primarily execute what proved to be a wildly successful strategy of linking Democratic candidates — from Colorado to North Carolina — to an increasingly unpopular President Barack Obama and his policies.
Related: Who's buying the Senate?
Instead, deep-pocketed conservative groups — including a cluster of groups tied to Republican strategist Karl Rove and a network of groups backed by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch — together sponsored hundreds of thousands of TV ads that relentlessly attacked Democrats for their ties to Obama.
The prominence in 2014 of non-party groups such as super PACs and politically active nonprofits underscores the way election funding has changed since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling in 2010.
Democrats, who enjoyed a six-seat Senate majority going into Election Day, attempted to defend themselves from an expected Republican onslaught.
Numerous incumbent Democrats outraised their GOP rivals, and liberal donors dug deep to support a pro-Democratic super PAC — Senate Majority PAC — that became the top sponsor of Senate-focused campaign ads this election cycle. Democrats even dabbled in so-called “dark money” through secretive nonprofit groups, such as Patriot Majority USA, that don’t disclose their donors.
Related: Total TV ads in the 2014 battle for the Senate through Nov. 3
But it wasn’t enough. Republicans are now predicted to control at least 52 U.S. Senate seats next year.
“When the outside money comes in in substantial amounts, you don’t have to make any choices,” Norman Ornstein, a scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said about Republicans’ midterm resources.
Had Republican candidates been left to their own, Ornstein continued, “my guess is you would not have seen nearly as much money going into places like Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire — even Alaska.”
Groups connected to Rove and the Koch brothers were among the biggest winners in Tuesday’s midterm elections.
Related: GOP’s Senate hopes energized by Koch network ad blitz
Of the 10 U.S. Senate races where either the Rove-linked nonprofit Crossroads GPS or its sister super PAC, American Crossroads, was active, their favored candidates prevailed in at least six — with the Alaska Senate race still too close to call at this writing and a runoff election coming next month in Louisiana.
Similarly, of the nine U.S. Senate races where the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity was active, its favored candidates also prevailed in at least five contests.
Only in New Hampshire and Michigan did the Crossroads groups and Americans for Prosperity see defeat.
In the Granite State, incumbent Sen. Jeanne Shaheen kept Republican challenger Scott Brown, who previously represented Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate, at bay. And in Michigan, Rep. Gary Peters defeated former Sec. of State Terri Lynn Land to win an open seat race.
Related: Surprise! No. 1 super PAC backs Democrats
As of press time, incumbent Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, was trailing GOP challenger Dan Sullivan, the state’s former attorney general and natural resources commissioner, by about five percentage points.
Ultimately, the current occupant of the White House decided the 2014 election, said Steven Law, president of American Crossroads.
“This election was about President Obama,” Law said in a statement.
Levi Russell, a spokesman for Americans for Prosperity, did not respond to requests for comment.
Related: Can this 'dark money' group help the Democrats keep the Senate?
In a marked contrast from the 2010 midterm elections, Democrats, too, embraced the post-Citizens United world of big-money politics, even while they continued to bemoan it.
That high court decision allowed corporations, including certain classes of nonprofit corporations, to spend funds to expressly advocate for the election or defeat of federal candidates.
The decision also paved the way for super PACs, which may accept unlimited contributions but must disclose their funders.
During the 2014 election cycle, the pro-Democratic Senate Majority PAC—which is run by allies of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. — produced more than 50,000 ads—more than any other outside spending group, according to a Center for Public Integrity review of data provided by Kantar Media/CMAG, a firm that tracks political advertising.
Related: 'Dark money'-funded TV ads in Senate races
And a pro-Democratic nonprofit called Patriot Majority USA — that is linked to Senate Majority PAC — played attack dog in the South, where several incumbent Democrats faced strong GOP challengers.
Just two of the candidates backed by Senate Majority PAC and Patriot Majority USA won on Tuesday — Peters in Michigan and Shaheen in New Hampshire.
Six of Senate Majority PAC’s favored candidates went down to defeat, while Patriot Majority USA saw four of the Democratic candidates it supported lose.
Both also backed incumbent Sen. Mary Landrieu in Louisiana, who is now headed to a Dec. 6 runoff with Republican rival Bill Cassidy.
Related: Hasen undisclosed money quote
Officials with Senate Majority PAC and Patriot Majority USA did not respond to requests for comment.
Overall, more than 1 million TV ads have aired since January 2013 as Democrats and Republicans battled for control of Congress’ upper chamber, according to Kantar Media/CMAG.
In many of the most pivotal Senate races, outside groups accounted for nearly one of every two ads.
Dark money groups that don’t disclose their funders accounted for at least one of every five ads in six of the hottest Senate races: Arkansas, North Carolina, Colorado, Kentucky, Louisiana and Michigan.
According to a Center for Public Integrity review of data provided by the Center for Responsive Politics, just two Senate contests saw outside groups spend more on elections than the candidates themselves in 2012 — Virginia and Indiana — and there were no such races in 2010.
This year, however, there could be more than half a dozen such contests when final numbers are tallied.
There’s more to this story. Click here to read the rest at the Center for Public Integrity.
This story is part of Buying the Senate 2014. Whether Republicans control both chambers of Congress squarely depends on Senate races in a handful of states. Click here to read more stories in this investigation.
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Copyright 2014 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.
