The reason that super PACs choose odd names is not that they are run by manipulative or secretive people—or not just because of that—but because the Federal Election Commission’s rules say that they can’t take a candidate’s name. The Supreme Court, in its Citizens United ruling, which ushered in the new super-PAC era, did not leave many restrictions on the ability of wealthy donors to sponsor campaigns, but super PACs are not supposed to “coördinate” their activities with the official campaign organizations ..
.. “We publicize every event on my schedule, and anyone can come,” she said. “What you see happening is a super PAC is organizing people. We’re not coördinating with them. We’re not asking them to. I don’t know what they’re doing, they don’t tell us what they’re doing.” And yet, CNN found that the only people handing out literature were affiliated with the super PAC, raising the question of who the campaign thought would be performing such basic tasks if the CARLY people hadn’t shown up. When asked about that, Fiorina referred the question to the super PAC.
Scott Walker’s Exit Shows Limits of ‘Super PAC’ Money Model
Super PACs, Mr. Walker learned, cannot pay rent, phone bills, salaries, airfares or ballot access fees. They are not entitled to the preferential rates on advertising that federal law grants candidates, forcing them to pay far more money than candidates must for the same television and radio time.
.. All told, as of June 30, the most recent reporting deadline, Republican super PACs and other groups involved in the primary had raised about $256 million, compared with just $78.4 million for the candidates.
.. Most of the candidates — with the prominent exception of Donald J. Trump, who is paying his own way — are now relying to a significant extent on super PACs to communicate with voters on their behalf in the five weeks remaining until the next Republican debate. This stretch, several Republicans predicted, will be a test of how effectively super PACs can prop up candidates who are otherwise limping in the polls, like former Gov. Jeb Bush or Senator Marco Rubio, both of Florida.
.. The super PAC backing Mr. Bush, which raised more than $100 million this spring and summer, twice as much as any other group, is spending $37 million on a last-ditch advertising campaign to introduce him as a proven conservative executive. That sum amounts to three times more than Mr. Bush’s own campaign had raised through the beginning of July, an enormous investment that appears unprecedented for this early in a Republican primary.
“I think Jeb Bush, without a super PAC, would not be doing well at all,” Mr. Backer said. “But $25 million can put out a lot of information to help change people’s minds.”
Willing to Spend $100 Million, Donald Trump Has So Far Reveled in Free Publicity
Spending is not a preoccupation, Mr. Trump said, in part because he has spent so little this summer. Advisers say he has spent $1.9 million of his own money so far, mostly on about 40 paid campaign staff members and standard expenses to travel and hold events.
.. When Mr. Trump joined the race in mid-June, he said he expected to spend $15 million in television commercials over the first three months, but he has yet to run any.
“I’ve gotten so much free advertising, it’s like nothing I’d have expected,” he said. “When you look at cable television, a lot of the programs are 100 percent Trump, so why would you need more Trump during the commercial breaks?”
How Jeb Bush Lost the Sheldon Adelson Primary
But in the Sheldon primary, according to multiple sources, one top candidate is already a dead man. That’s former Florida governor Jeb Bush, whose aides have, for the past several months, been making overtures to Adelson in an attempt to get him to open his wallet to a Bush super PAC that is expected to raise record sums. But at this point, it looks like none of that money will come from Adelson. “I think he’s lost the Sheldon primary,” says the leader of a top conservative group.
.. Adelson sent word to Bush’s camp in Miami: Bush, he said, should tell Baker to cancel the speech. When Bush refused, a source describes Adelson as “rips***”; another says Adelson sent word that the move cost the Florida governor “a lot of money.”