Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, the Republican running for the seat, spent nearly $9.8 million as of Sept. 30. Brown, meanwhile, spent $15.3 million by that date.
The Crossroads groups, meanwhile, have spent $17.6 million in primarily targeted ads against President Barack Obama.
The groups, said Kathy Kiely of the Sunlight Foundation, are “the outside money king, because they’re so far above everyone else in terms of what they’re spending.
“There are certainly other committees out there spending a lot of money, but they’re the granddaddy,” she said.
Their impact has been huge nationally as well: Between Sept. 9 and Sept. 30, American Crossroads spent $9.4 million to air 14,154 ads nationwide, according to the Wesleyan Media Project, which tracks political advertising. That’s easily tops all groups, and trails only the two presidential candidates during that period. Crossroads GPS, spending $5.5 million to air 7,046 ads, was behind only American Crossroads among outside groups supporting or opposing candidates in the election.
That’s not to say Democratic-leaning groups aren’t spending as well: Priorities USA Action, an organization involved only in the presidential race spent $3.9 million on 9,024 ads nationally during that time and SEIU COPE, a union-affiliated PAC, and Planned Parenthood also were on the air during that time, according to the Wesleyan Media Project.
And in the Senate race, groups including Senate Majority PAC, the National Education Association, League of Conservation Voters and Moms Rising have spent around $6 million supporting Brown, according to figures from both campaigns. That figure doesn’t include what the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has spent.
The explosion in spending by outside groups was made possible by the U.S. Supreme Court’s January 2010 Citizens United ruling, which radically reshaped the nation’s campaign finance laws by barring the government from restricting independent political expenditures by corporations and unions.
Rove quickly amassed millions, first through American Crossroads, a 527 advocacy organization required to disclose its donors, and then through Crossroads GPS, a 501 c(4) nonprofit that, because of its tax status, is not obligated to publicly disclose its donors.
A spokesman for both groups said the group was merely doing what other outside — and largely Democratic groups — have done for decades. During the 2008 elections, for example, labor unions spent an estimated $200 million on the presidential race, though it’s unclear how much of that was spent during the primary and how much was spent during the general election.
“For years, liberal groups and unions were spending millions of dollars beating up Republicans, so Crossroads provided a vehicle for conservatives to stop fighting with one hand tied behind our backs,” said Nate Hodson, a spokesman for both groups.
But Fred Wertheimer, president and CEO of watchdog group Democracy 21, worries that the explosion of money to 501 c(4) advocacy groups, which aren’t required to disclose donors, may lead to donations from unfriendly foreign nations.
“The bottom line is there is no way for the public to know whether foreign money is going to nonprofit groups that are making expenditures to influence elections,” Wertheimer said.
Two years after the ruling, the two Crossroads groups have helped to change the landscape in how campaigns are financed. Outside groups have poured a total of $23 million into efforts to defeat Brown, nearly equaling the combined amount the candidates have spent on the race.
“They kind of invented the art form,” said Adam Skaggs, senior counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. “Crossroads sort of created the blueprint for all these groups.”
For American Crossroads, the biggest donors have included Harold Simmons of Dallas, whose Contran Corp. manufactures and sells titanium dioxide pigments; and Bob Perry, a Texas home builder who helped to finance the “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” campaign against Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry in 2004.
The donor list also includes three Dayton companies owned by the Dayton-based Reynolds and Reynolds – Waterbury Properties, LLC, Fairbanks Properties and CRC Information Systems. The first company gave $333,334 to American Crossroads on June 6; the other two gave $333,333 one day earlier.
All three groups also gave to “Restore our Future,” a super-PAC supporting Romney, one month earlier.
Tom Schwartz, a spokesman for Reynolds and Reynolds, said the company’s chief executive, Robert T. Brockman, gave his $1 million donation to American Crossroads and $1 million donation to “Restore our Future,” in three parts because of “expedience.”
“It was split several ways,” he said. “But all are from Reynolds and Reynolds.”
Crossroads GPS and the Democratic-leaning MoveOn.org Civic Action, which was founded in 2001, are classified by the Internal Revenue Service as 501 c(4s), a category reserved for non-profit groups that promote social welfare. As such, they are monitored by the IRS and not the Federal Election Commission, a fact that causes heartburn for watchdogs.
The Sunlight Foundation’s Kiely said she’s concerned that IRS watchdogs — busy with other responsibilities and perhaps not as in tune with election law as the FEC — might let some donations slide that would otherwise be prohibited. While foreign donors are strictly barred from giving to political campaigns, she said it might be easier for them to donate to a social welfare organization.
Hodson said Crossroads GPS is “a policy and grassroots advocacy organization that is committed to educating, equipping and mobilizing millions of American citizens to take action on the critical economic and legislative issues that will shape our nation’s future in the years ahead.”
But Skaggs said the line between social welfare advocacy and political campaigning is often blurry.
“The reality is there’s not one voter in the world who would see one of these ads and think anything other than it’s an appeal to get them to vote for or against a particular candidate,” he said.
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