Rove, Gillespie Look to Raise $120M
Ben Smith at Politico reports:
There is, as Ken Vogel and I reported recently, a serious struggle underway for control of the Republican outside money apparatus, pitting the upstart, ideological Koch-backed groups against the devoutly Republican, politically pragmatic Crossroads groups in which Karl Rove is a key figure.
The Koch brothers plan to raise and spend -- at the very least, I think -- $88 million; and the Rove groups set their target in an announcement today:
Today, American Crossroads and Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies (Crossroads GPS) announced a collective fundraising goal of $120 million through the end of 2012. These resources will fund advocacy efforts to compete with the torrent of outside money from unions and left-leaning groups. Unions spent more than $400 million electing Barack Obama and Democrats in the 2008 elections and we expect that total to be significantly higher in 2012.
American Crossroads (the 527) also announced a new Presidential Action Fund, a new initiative that will be dedicated to shaping the issue environment and driving high-impact messages and themes in 2012. The Fund will conduct in-depth issue research, polling, microtargeting, issue advocacy and turnout activities. The project will begin this year and build substantially next year.
One caveat for both sets of groups: Nonprofit law requires that 501(c)4 organizations, like Crossroads GPS and some of the Koch groups, to spend 51% of their resources on issue advocacy or other missions aside from electoral politics.
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