This is What Anonymous Funding Looks Like

Who paid William McKinley's presidential campaign expenses?

The short answer is: we have no idea. Prior to the 20th century, and especially prior the 1970s, campaign finance was the darkest secret of American politics. Money was raised in secret, often in very large amounts, and spent in ways often very difficult to trace.

For 40 years, the US tried to achieve a more transparent finance system. It proved an uphill struggle, now ending in failure. The dark mystery of anonymity is closing in again.

American Crossroads and an army of other conservative outside groups played a catalytic role in creating the GOP House majority — and this year Democrats in at least a dozen races say they are hiring staff earlier, raising cash faster and mapping out TV advertising plans sooner in an effort to fight back.

“It all happened very fast. These groups came into play very quickly,” said West Virginia Democrat Mike Oliverio, an unsuccessful 2010 candidate who was hammered last year by more than $400,000 in TV ads from the conservative Iowa-based American Future Fund and $70,000 in mailers from American Crossroads.

“I think it will be a different situation this time around because we all know what’s coming,” said Oliverio, who is running again next year.

The amount of cash that American Crossroads alone is poised to plow into 2012 races is staggering: After spending $70 million in 2010, the group has set a fundraising goal of $240 million for the election season.

Who gives that money? In what amounts? We'll never know. But there's one haunting question that is not shrouded in secrecy. What do they get in return? The answer to that is evident all around us.