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$63 million
Amount of dark-money spent so far in the 2014 cycle — just shy of the $69 million in dark money spent during the ENTIRE 2008 presidential election, according to Mother Jones. This was a new record and seven times the amount of dark money spent by the same point on House and Senate elections in 2010.
89%
Of House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) campaign contributions come from outside of his home state of Ohio, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
First, small donors appear to be more polarized than the CEOs and the top .01 percent. All those donors are relatively polarized, with donors clustered around the party medians, but the wealthier folks are somewhat less so. Second, the 30 wealthiest donors in the country are actually pretty moderate, at least judging from this measure. Apart from some extremists like George Soros and the Koch brothers, most exist between the party medians. … This presents an interesting conundrum. We know Congress has grown more polarized over the past three decades. And we know that the very wealthy are donating more and more each year. But the very wealthy aren’t necessarily that polarized. If they were buying the government they wanted, they’d be getting a more moderate one than we currently have.
$125 million
Amount the Koch brothers’ main political arm intends to spend on an aggressive ground, air and data operation benefiting conservatives in the midterm elections. “The projected budget for Americans for Prosperity would be unprecedented for a private political group in a midterm, and would likely rival even the spending of the Republican and Democratic parties’ congressional campaign arms,” according to Politico.
I go out of my way to avoid meeting candidates and politicians. All too often, these people are so disappointing that it’s depressing. Most of these people you meet, they’re unemployable…. It’s just easier not to know.
— GOP super donor John Jordan, quoted by National Journal.
$336 million
Spending by “dark money” groups — organizations that do not have to disclose the sources of their political money — in 2012, according to Federal Election Commission and Internal Revenue Service data. Dark money has skyrocketed from about $25 million in 2000.
