Super Pac

WASHINGTON - No matter what happens on election day, it's already clear the 2012 campaign has ushered in a new political order. "Super PACs" and tax-exempt advocacy groups - on track to spend roughly $1 billion on federal races, an unparalleled sum - are poised to expand their influence even further. Amid the white-hot final weeks of this election, outside groups are already plotting their next targets: the year-end battle over the federal budget, the 2014 congressional races and a possible fight over the next Supreme Court nominee.

WASHINGTON - A strong fundraising push and a light presence on the airwaves enabled Restore Our Future, the “super PAC” backing Mitt Romney, to end September with replenished coffers, setting the stage for its October spending blitz. The group pulled in $14.8 million and spent just $4.1 million on ads, ending the month with $16.6 million in the bank, according to filings submitted Friday to the Federal Election Committee. That's a much healthier cash outlook than Restore Our Future's previous month; in August, the group spent three times as much as it took in and ended the month with just $6.3 million on hand.

NEW YORK - After a testy, bruising debate days ago, President Obama and Mitt Romney met Thursday on an entirely different - and more pleasant - stage, appearing at a quasi-roast for charity here, where they ribbed each other and themselves. Romney, who spoke first, mixed his humor with gibes at the president about the nation's debt, his healthcare policy, unemployment and his penchant for blaming continuing struggles on his predecessor George W. Bush. "As President Obama surveys the Waldorf banquet room, with everyone in white tie and finery, you have to wonder what he's thinking - so little time, so much to redistribute," the GOP nominee said.

NEW YORK - Among the series of events held Tuesday at the Waldorf Astoria to thank the wealthy donors backing Mitt Romney was a session with the leaders of Restore Our Future, a "super PAC" prohibited from coordinating with his campaign. The afternoon meeting was held behind an unmarked door in one of the hotel's dining rooms, just one floor above the Grand Ballroom, where 1,000 donors and fundraisers for the Republican's presidential campaign had gathered earlier in the day to listen to officials discuss the strategy for the final three weeks of the presidential race.

WASHINGTON - In the escalating money race for the White House, Mitt Romney was supposed to have an advantage: a cavalry of outside groups that could collect unlimited sums and flood the airwaves with advertisements on his behalf. "Super PACs" such as the pro-Romney Restore Our Future and nonprofit groups like Crossroads GPS lambasted President Obama on air as early as last winter and will probably continue until election day. FOR THE RECORD: Campaign money: An article in Section A on Sept.

Priorities USA Action, the “super PAC” supporting President Obama's reelection bid, raised $10 million in August, its most lucrative month of the campaign so far. The haul was first reported by the New York Times and confirmed to the Los Angeles Times/Tribune Washington Bureau by strategist Bill Burton, one of two former White House aides running the group. Burton did not specify any notable donors who stepped up in August; those names will be revealed Sept. 20 when the group files its monthly finance report with the Federal Election Commission.

TAMPA, Fla. - A little more than a year ago, Frank VanderSloot contributed $1million to a "super PAC" supporting Mitt Romney. Now, the Idaho-based health products executive is a sought-after donor at the Republican National Convention as he makes the rounds of independent groups backing the GOP ticket. On Monday, VanderSloot and his wife met privately for an hour and a half with Karl Rove, the former top advisor to President George W. Bush and the strategist for the GOP heavyweight group American Crossroads.

WASHINGTON - A controversy that flared around an ad run by a “super PAC” supporting the reelection of President Obama does not appear to have hurt the group's fundraising. Priorities USA Action, a group launched by two former White House aides, unveiled a new television commercial Tuesday hammering Romney for his economic record as Massachusetts governor - part of what the super PAC said will be a $30-million advertising buy attacking the Republican ticket as bad for the middle class.

Thanks to apps like Shazam and SoundHound, our smartphones are able to tell us who is behind that song we were rocking out to at the gym, or that we fell in love with on the car radio. Now, thanks to two new apps, our smartphones can also tell us more information about the groups funding political ads on television and the radio. On Wednesday the MIT media lab and the nonprofit, nonpartisan group the Sunlight Foundation both released apps that use audio fingerprinting technology to identify political ads and tell you information about the organization that paid for it. Both apps work the same way: If you are watching television and a political ad pops up, all you have to do is open up the app, let it listen to some of the ad, and the app will tell you what organization made the ad, how much the ad cost, how much money the organization has spent in the campaign so far as well as other information if its available.

Martin Amis, once dubbed "fiction's angriest writer," continues dissecting the absurdity and excesses of postmodern society in his latest novel, "Lionel Asbo: State of England," which reaches bookstores Aug. 21. The British novelist, 62, recently moved from London to Brooklyn, N.Y., with his wife, American writer Isabel Fonseca, and their teenage daughters, Clio and Fernanda. The subtitle of your new novel, "Lionel Asbo," is "State of England. " But I think your story of a sociopathic criminal who wins the lottery and becomes a tabloid celebrity could easily have happened here.