Photograph by Bill Clark/Roll Call/Getty Images
Rep. Heather Wilson
Karl Rove’s American Crossroads, which discloses its donors, and Crossroads GPS, which keeps them hidden, were among the biggest spenders in the 2010 congressional races, pumping $22 million into efforts to elect Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Rove’s groups — which also counts Mitt Romney adviser Ed Gillespie among its founders and advisers, and Romney super-PAC director Carl Forti as its political director — has already matched that total for the presidential election, according to Kantar Media’s CMAG.
That doesn’t mean the Crossroads groups have lost their interest in Congress.
Crossroads GPS previously had spent $9 million in Senate races, according to CMAG. New ads out today by the group target Montana, where Democrat Jon Tester is running for re-election, and an open seat in Indiana. The ads go after Tester and Representative Joe Donnelly, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Indiana.
Sister organization American Crossroads has its first Senate race ad out as well, praising former Representative Heather Wilson as someone who will “stop the reckless spending.”
During the six years Wilson served in the House majority while President George W. Bush was in the White House, the federal budget grew from $1.8 trillion to $2.7 trillion, and went from a $128 billion surplus to a $161 billion deficit.
