USA TODAY analysis: Super PAC donations surge past $1 billion
WASHINGTON — Super PAC donations have barreled past the $1 billion mark, driven by a small group of super-wealthy contributors intent on deciding who will occupy the White House and control Congress next year.
Donations to super PACs hit nearly $1.1 billion through the end of August, a USA TODAY analysis of newly filed campaign-finance reports shows. That surpasses the $846.8 million that poured into these groups during the entire 2012 election cycle, the first presidential race in which super PACs operated.
Nearly half the money — $500.8 million — flowing to super PACs in this election came from 62 individuals, companies and unions that gave $3 million or more apiece, the tally shows.
More is on the way.
The top super PAC donors of the 2012 election, billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, have just begun to spend, directing a combined $20 million last month to a super PAC working to preserve the Republicans’ narrow majority in the Senate. Another $20 million in Adelson money is headed to a House-focused super PAC.
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Adelson also is joining forces with TD Ameritrade founder J. Joe Ricketts to help fund Future45, a super PAC that intends to hammer Democrat Hillary Clinton with negative ads, mailers and phone calls. Adelson has committed $5 million, and the Ricketts family will donate $1 million.
Its first national television ad could start this week, said Brian Baker, a longtime political adviser to the Ricketts family who is overseeing the super PAC’s last-minute campaign to stop Clinton.
Why the last-minute push? “This is the period of time when voters are making up their minds,” Baker said. “Future45 intends to educate voters about Secretary Clinton’s record.”
Democrats are spending heavily, too.
A USA TODAY analysis of super PACs that have raised $1 million or more since Jan. 1, 2015, shows Democratic groups outpacing Republicans in recent weeks. In August alone, Democratic-aligned super PACs raised $64.8 million to $45.1 million that went to Republican groups.
Two Democrats, billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer and hedge-fund manager S. Donald Sussman, top the list of mega-donors, contributing more than $38 million and $23 million, respectively.
Steyer this week announced plans to give an additional $15 million to For Our Future, a super PAC he formed with labor groups that aims to turn out Millennial voters. That brings his commitment to the group to $20 million.
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Super PACs, first authorized by court rulings in 2010, can raise unlimited sums from corporations, individuals and trade groups and then use that money to elect or defeat candidates. Their presence in everything from presidential races to local school board contests has the potential to give some of the nation’s wealthiest people enormous influence in elections.
USA TODAY’s super PAC tally doesn’t include the more than $1 billion raised through the summer by all presidential candidates, including the nearly two dozen contenders vanquished in the primaries, nor the tens of millions flowing into races by politically active nonprofits that don't disclose their fundraising on a regular basis.
Clinton has pledged to push for a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision that helped pave the way for super PACs. But Democratic donors are using the existing system to boost her campaign now.
Hillary Clinton will push constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United
In August, powered by more than $23 million in contributions, the pro-Clinton Priorities USA Action became the best-funded super PAC of the 2016 election. In all, it has pulled in $133 million, up from the $79 million it raised in 2012 when it was created to support President Obama’s re-election.
Sussman is its largest donor, contributing $13 million.
Justin Barasky, Priorities’ spokesman, said fear of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is helping to drive donors. “Democrats see that Donald Trump is uniquely unfit to be our president, and Priorities is thrilled that they’re so deeply engaged in our fight to stop him,” he said in a statement.
