The sponsors of the attack ads are as few as five - and up to less than 200 - billionaires. These PACs are their financial playgrounds. Their "free speech" is not only costing billions of dollars, but tens of thousands of votes, and the voices of millions of citizens.
UPDATE: Sunlight Foundation has a new App -- ADHAWK where you can hold your phone up to the ad and it will tell you whose paying - if it's not secret. http://adhawk.sunlightfoundation.com/
Read about the project here: http://reporting.sunlightfoundation.com/outside-spending/super-pacs/
Who are the SuperPacs:
Top Groups, Excluding Party Committees, 2012
Organization
|
Total
|
View*
|
Independent
Expenditures
|
Elec
Comm
|
Comm
Costs
|
Super
PAC
|
527s†
|
501c
|
$53,878,098
|
C
|
$53,878,098
|
$0
|
$0
|
x
| |||
$17,002,762
|
C
|
$17,002,762
|
$0
|
$0
|
x
| |||
$16,087,987
|
L
|
$16,087,987
|
$0
|
$0
|
x
| |||
$12,442,024
|
C
|
$12,155,247
|
$286,777
|
$0
|
x
|
x
| ||
$10,999,826
|
C
|
$10,999,826
|
$0
|
$0
|
x
|
x
| ||
Next on the list is the US Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber is not a US agency. It is private, and increasingly controlled by foreign money, especially from China. The Chamber refuses to disclose how much of its support comes from foreign sources. It is spending millions on ads targeting Democrats. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Chamber_of_Commerce#Electoral_activities http://www.iwatchnews.org/2012/07/27/10352/daily-disclosure-us-chamber-drops-59-million-ad-blitz
The Center for Consumer Freedom is starting to rise again, running ads against the Humane Society. CFF was begun in 1995 by a tobacco company to discredit public health organizations like the Centers for Disease Control, and their supporters. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom.
A huge percentage of PAC money -- 25% -- comes from just five rich white male donors.
Harold Simmons is the Dallas industrialist who financed the ads “Swiftboating” John Kerry. He is the top donor to conservative SuperPacs.
Sheldon Adelson is the Las Vegas casino mogul who gave $10 million to Winning Our Future, a super PAC aiding former House speaker Newt Gingrich.
Peter Thiel, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist and co-founder of PayPal, donated $2.6 million to Endorse Liberty, a super PAC helping Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. Thiel, a hard-partying libertarian, gave $70,000 to a 2010 ballot initiative in California legalizing marijuana.
Bob Perry is a Houston home builder who donated $3.6 million to super PACs since Jan. 1, 2011, including $2.5 million to American Crossroads. He has supported Texas Gov. Rick Perry and state PACs backing former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty in the past, but he shifted last year to a pro-Romney super PAC with a $1 million donation.
No Democratic donors rank as high as the top donors to Republican super PACs.
What about the other 75 of PAC donors%? 196 People Control 80 Percent of Super PAC Money
