Super Pac

A day after former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum scored a trio of upset victories , a “super PAC” working on behalf of the GOP presidential hopeful said it was flooded with calls from donors who wanted to back its efforts. “We've been working at a speed faster than any other day the super PAC has seen in this election season,” Stuart Roy, a political advisor to the Red White and Blue Fund , wrote in an email to the Los Angeles Times/Tribune Washington Bureau. “We haven't made a single fundraising call today because potential donors have been the ones calling us.” He declined to say how much money the super PAC -- which raised $729,000 last year -- had received in new commitments.

A veritable who's who of wealthy Texans poured money into a “super PAC” backing Texas Gov. Rick Perry before his presidential bid collapsed this month, along with nearly a dozen corporations, new campaign finance filings show. In all, Make Us Great Again, an independent political organization launched by former Perry chief of staff Mike Toomey and G. Brint Ryan, a longtime donor to Perry's gubernatorial campaigns, raised nearly $5.5 million last year. The super PAC spent $4.8 million, mostly in television advertising backing Perry's candidacy.

Satirist Stephen Colbert's "super PAC" has raised more than $1 million since it was formed last summer, the committee's treasurer said in a letter to the Federal Election Commission. The letter accompanied required financial filings for 2011, which show that the committee raised $824,305.46 and spent $151,521.01 last year. The PAC, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, "would like it entered into the record that as of January 30th, 2012, the sum total of our donations was $1,023,121.24," wrote treasurer Shauna Polk.

Leading GOP presidential aspirants Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney have decried the role of high-spending super PACs in recent days, while their close friends, donors and former staff push these newly created political committees to the forefront of modern campaigning. Welcome to the 2012 campaign, where these new groups that can raise donations in unlimited amounts are acting as surrogates for candidates, in some cases outspending the candidates and the political parties. In Iowa on Monday, Gingrich took aim at super PACs of his opponents, who have been bashing him in broadcast ads and fliers.

After arguing in Monday night's GOP debate that he would like to see super PACs “disappear,” Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney defended the fact that he has raised money for the independent committee supporting his campaign - stating that he was simply operating within the bounds of current law and doing what was necessary to compete in the presidential race. “It's not that I don't support super PACs,” Romney told reporters Tuesday when asked how he squared appearing at fundraisers for the committee, Restore Our Future, with his distaste for the outsized role that the groups have played in the 2012 cycle.

WASHINGTON -- The pro-Romney “super PAC” Restore Our Future pulled in nearly $5 million in May, according to reports with the Federal Election Commission filed Wednesday, as the group pivoted to its general election battle against President Obama. The group spent almost as much as it raised -- $4.8 million, the bulk of which went toward its “Mother's Day” ad buy in early May, which hammered Democrats for comments belittling Ann Romney's stay-at-home motherhood. The super PAC ended the month with $8.4 million in the bank.

GOP presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman is the latest candidate to get the backing of a tailor-made "super PAC" -- complete with top-tier talent formerly with his official campaign. Fred Davis, the GOP ad man whose off-kilter contributions to the political lexicon include " demon sheep ," has signed on to the newly formed "Our Destiny PAC," which filed papers with the Federal Election Commission last week and includes, among its officials, an executive from Huntsman Corp., a global chemical company owned by the candidate's father, Jon Huntsman Sr. Politico reported today that the corporation said it has no affiliation to the PAC. Davis, who was with the official Huntsman campaign until he resigned on July 27, will "be an important part of the PAC's team," according to the group's website . The move, first spotted by Real Clear Politics , gives Davis a bigger piggy bank to play with, as independent-expenditure groups are allowed to solicit unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations and unions.

By midnight Tuesday, we'll have our first glimpse inside the machinery of the so-called “super PACs,” a new breed of independent political organizations that have metastasized during this campaign. That's when all active political committees have to file reports with the Federal Election Commission disclosing their donors and expenses. Many reports are expected to land late Tuesday night, while the political class is busy digesting the results of Florida's primaries. But the filings by the early birds are already underscoring the close ties between the putatively independent organizations and the candidates they back.

Sheldon and Miriam Adelson are sending another $5 million to support the presidential ambitions of Newt Gingrich, providing funds to the House speaker's close allies as the remaining GOP presidential candidates turn to Florida. This month, the Adelsons sent their first $5 million wire transfer to Winning Our Future, a "super PAC" backing Gingrich's campaign. The organization is one of a new genre of campaign committees that can legally accept donations of unlimited amounts -- like the $10 million now donated from the Adelsons.  A Supreme Court decision spawned new rules allowing "independent" political committees to solicit funds from individuals, unions and corporations for campaign purposes, provided the donors' identities are disclosed.

Likely fundraising front-runner Mitt Romney got an additional boost Tuesday when an outside group formed to support his campaign reported a $12-million haul for the first half of the year. Restore Our Future, a "super PAC" that can collect unlimited donations, was formed by several former Romney aides last year. "There is tremendous support across the country for Mitt Romney," the group's treasurer, Charlie Spies, said in a news release. "Americans are coming out in support of Gov. Romney because they are confident he has the experience to turn our economy around.