Photograph by Win McNamee/Getty Images

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain holds up a cupcake decorated with his 9-9-9 economic plan before a speech at the National Press Club in this file photo.

One legacy of the 2012 presidential race: the super-political action committees it spawned.

Weeks after the Nov. 6 election, those groups still had more than $5.4 million left to spend, Federal Election Commission reports due yesterday show.

Each candidate — from President Barack Obama to short-lived Republican contender Rick Perry — got an assist from at least one specially designed super-PAC, often staffed with former aides to that presidential hopeful.

New to the presidential race last year, super-PACs could accept unlimited sums from wealthy individuals, corporations and unions and spend the money directly helping their candidate of choice, so long as they didn’t coordinate with the candidate.

Priorities USA Action, organized to help the president win re-election, had $3.7 million at the end of December. What will the super-PAC do with the leftover cash? A representative for Priorities couldn’t immediately be reached.

Restore Our Future, created to boost Republican challenger Mitt Romney, had $1.3 million in the bank. Brittany Gross, a spokeswoman for Restore, said in an e-mail the group is “not discussing future plans at this point.”

Far older super-PAC corpses — from the Republican primary race that concluded some nine months ago — still litter the field.

Winning Our Future, which helped Newt Gingrich stay in the Republican race months after his own campaign coffers dwindled, had $60,283. (The super-PAC finally stopped paying its consultant-founder, Rebecca Burkett, last month.)

Perry ally Make Us Great Again had $216,161 as of Dec. 31. Rick Santorum-backing Red, White and Blue Fund, had $127,063. Our Destiny, funded largely by onetime candidate Jon Huntsman’s father, had $20,209 cash on hand.

The pro-Herman Cain 9-9-9 Fund was down to its last $100 but owes $162,000 to a fundraising company. The Georgia businessman, who promised to balance the federal budget in less than a year, would not be pleased.

Original post is Super-PACs Still Super With $5.4 Mln — Though `9-9-9′ Down to Last $100 by Political Capital.

Weintraub said presidential, Senate and House  candidates spent around $3.2 billion, the political parties $2 billion and outside groups $2.1 billion. If her estimates prove correct, it would mark the first time that the outside groups, which include super-political action committees such as American Crossroads and Priorities USA Action and nonprofits that hide their donors such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Americans for Prosperity, spent more than political parties.

Bloomberg BNA’s Kenneth Doyle reported that the record spending has led to a large number of complaints of election-law violations, resulting in what Weintraub said was the largest backlog that the commisison has faced.

Original post is 2012 Elections Cost Will Hit $7 Billion, FEC Chair Weintraub Says by Political Capital.

Photograph by Charles Dharapak/AP Photo

Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton briefs reporters at the White House in Washington, on June 21, 2010.

Former White House aide Bill Burton is joining the Global Strategy Group as executive vice president in its Washington office.  Burton is co-founder and senior strategist for Priorities USA Action, a super-political action committee that helped re-elect the president.

Burton has “a deep understanding of the communications and political landscapes in Washington,” said Jon Silvan, the consulting group’s chief executive officer.

Silvan’s clients have included Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, who was re-elected in November along with Obama. Another member of the firm, Stephen Sigmund, served as New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine’s communications director.

In Washington, Burton will be reunited with Jim Papa, Obama’s former special assistant for legislative affairs. Papa was also a senior adviser to Obama’s first chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, when he served in the U.S. House. Burton worked for Emanuel at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Original post is Obama Re-Election Behind Him, Burton Joins Consulting Firm by Political Capital.

Photograph by Jason Rearick/The News-Times via AP Photo

Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, center, holds hands with her husband, Mark Kelly, while exiting Town Hall at Fairfield Hills Campus in Newtown, Conn. after meeting with Newtown officials on Jan. 4, 2013. Giffords also met with families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre.

Steve and Amber Mostyn, wealthy Texas trial attorneys, said today that they are giving $1 million to help start the gun-control advocacy group formed by former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly.

Steve Mostyn, one of the top contributors to a super political action committee that helped President Barack Obama’s re-election effort, is listed as treasurer of Giffords’s new super-PAC, Americans for Responsible Solutions. Mostyn said the group will have a nonprofit wing, which will be used to conduct a public education campaign.

Mostyn said the super-PAC will counter the political contributions of the National Rifle Association, which is how he’s pitching it to other big Democratic donors.

“It’s time to stop the NRA from bullying common sense out of the discussion,” he said in an interview. “There are more options than just ‘guns or no guns.”’

Mostyn, 41 and a Houston resident, says he owns many guns and has a shooting range on his ranch in west Texas.

A long-time donor to Democratic causes and candidates in Texas, Steve Mostyn increased his federal giving in the 2012 elections. He contributed $4 million to Priorities USA Action, a super-PAC founded by former aides to Obama. His wife, Amber Mostyn, gave more than $1 million to House Majority PAC, a super-PAC that helped Democratic congressional candidates.

“We put about $5 million into super-PACs, and I understand their ability to get things done,” he said. He has contacted other donors from Priorities and House Majority about Americans for Responsible Solutions and has had a “a great response,” he said, declining to name other specific donors.

Mostyn said he believes the super-PAC will be able to compete with the NRA’s political giving. Federal Election Commission records show that the NRA’s Political Victory Fund spent $16 million in the two years leading to the Nov. 6 election. An NRA nonprofit affiliate, the Institute for Legislative Action, made another $7.5 million in independent expenditures such as direct mail and ads, to help NRA-friendly candidates, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, based in Washington.

Giffords, a Democrat, was wounded in a 2011 shooting in Tucson that killed six others.

“Achieving reform to reduce gun violence and prevent mass shootings will mean matching gun lobbyists in their reach and resources,” Giffords and Kelly wrote in a USA Today opinion piece published yesterday, the second anniversary of the Arizona shooting.

Kelly called Mostyn, whom he’d met years ago when the astronaut was based in Houston, shortly after the Dec. 14 killings in Newtown, Connecticut, Mostyn said. The gunman, who shot his mother to death before killing 26 people, mostly 6-year-olds, at a nearby elementary school, committed suicide.

“He said he and Gabby felt it was time for them to do something more than just talking,” Mostyn said.

The Newtown massacre also prompted Obama to tap Vice President Joe Biden to study gun-control and mental health issues. Biden invited the NRA to meet with administration officials this week.

Original post is Giffords Gun-Control Packs Texan Cash: Trial Lawyers in for $1 Million by Political Capital.

Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

A man walks through the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center with balloons where Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is scheduled to speak on Nov. 6, 2012.

Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

A man walks through the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center with balloons where Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is scheduled to speak on Nov. 6, 2012.

That’s how much outside groups spent in the final week of the Nov. 6 election campaign, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The big late spenders included American Crossroads ($23 million), a super-political action committee founded with help from Republican strategist Karl Rove, and Priorities USA Action ($10 million), a Democratic super-PAC run by former aides to President Barack Obama.

Original post is Bloomberg by the Numbers: $97.7 Million by Political Capital.

Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama following a presidential debate at the University of Denver in Denver, Colorado, on Oct. 3, 2012.

That’s how much President Barack Obama, Republican Mitt Romney and five groups active in the presidential election raised from Jan. 1, 2011 through Nov. 26, 2012.

Obama and two Democratic groups together raised $1.10 billion, compared with $1.13 billion raised by Republican presidential nominee Romney and three allied groups, according to documents filed last week with the Federal Election Commission that underscored the robustness and parity of the fundraising.

The Democratic tally includes $733 million from Obama’s campaign, $289 million from the Democratic National Committee and $79 million from Priorities USA Action, a super-political action committee run by former Obama White House aides.

The Republican total includes $479 million from Romney’s campaign, $381 million from the Republican National Committee, $154 million from the Restore Our Future, pro-Romney super-PAC, and $117 million from American Crossroads, a super-PAC that also aided Republican candidates for Congress.

Original post is Bloomberg by the Numbers: $2.23 Bln by Political Capital.

Photograph by Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images

The debate between presidential debate between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney is seen on a television in a Korean restaurant on Oct. 22, 2012 in Chatsworth area of Los Angeles.

That’s how many times television ads from President Barack Obama, Republican nominee Mitt Romney and other groups involved in the Nov. 6 election have aired during the general election campaign, according to Kantar Media’s CMAG.

The totals include spots that ran on national network, national cable and local broadcast stations between April 10, when Romney effectively became the Republican nominee, and Oct. 22, the most recent date for which CMAG data are available. The CMAG data don’t include ads that ran on local cable.

The ad count topped the million mark in the past week. Obama’s campaign supplied 466,127 ads, compared to 173,727 for Romney and 72,849 for Crossroads GPS, a non-profit group founded with the help of Republican strategist Karl Rove. A related organization, the super-PAC American Crossroads, provided 57,302 spots. Restore Our Future, a pro-Romney super-PAC, provided 49,649 ads, and the pro-Obama super-PAC Priorities USA Action supplied 46,487 spots.

At about 30 seconds per commercial, it would take more than 352 days to watch all one million.

Original post is Bloomberg by the Numbers: 1,014,484 by Political Capital.

Photograph by Patrick Fallon/Bloomberg

Shopping carts at a new Wal-Mart store.

Priorities USA Action, the super-PAC supporting President Barack Obama, incorrectly told the Federal Election Commission that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Chairman Samuel Robson Walton, better known as Rob, was a $300,000 donor to the group last month.

In an amended FEC filing, the super-PAC said it was Walton’s son, Samuel Rawlings Walton, who actually cut the check. The younger Walton, grandson of the Wal-Mart founder, sits on the board of the Environmental Defense Fund.

Original post is Wrong Walton, Priorities USA Action Declares by Political Capital.

Photograph by Kabik/Starlitepics/Picturegroup via AP Images

President Barack Obama in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Priorities USA Action, a super-political action committee backing President Barack Obama, is shifting and increasing its television advertising buy to include the swing state of Nevada, its co-founder Bill Burton said this morning.

The super-PAC’s new focus on Nevada, which has six electoral votes, comes at the expense of advertising in the larger swing states of Florida and Wisconsin. Priorities ads will remain on air in some of the markets of those two states, which together hold 39 electoral votes.

An infusion of cash is allowing Priorities to spend more on advertising overall, Burton said, with spots on in Colorado, Iowa, Ohio and Virginia in addition to Nevada, Wisconsin and Florida. He declined to comment on the size of the ad buy.

After trailing Republican super-PAC fundraising for months, Priorities pulled ahead of them for the month of August, logging a record $10 million in contributions. September fundraising totals will be reported to the Federal Election Commission on Oct. 20 and could include $1 million that billionaire George Soros has promised to give Priorities.

Nevada has emerged as a major player in the presidential race. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist College poll last week showed Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney essentially tied in that state.

Original post is Priorities Sets New Priority: Nevada by Political Capital.

Photograph by Akos Stiller/Bloomberg

George Soros, founder of Soros Fund Management LLC, in Budapest, Hungary, on Thursday, Sept. 13, 2012.

Investor George Soros, a long-time donor to Democratic candidates and causes, has agreed to contribute $1 million to the super-political action committee run by former aides to President Barack Obama.

Two officials of Priorities USA Action confirmed the donation.

Priorities USA Action reported raising $10.1 million in August, the first month it surpassed Restore Our Future, a super-PAC backing Republican challenger Mitt Romney that brought in $7 million.

Soros’ $1 million donation to Priorities USA Action will mark his third seven-figure contribution this year. In May, he said he would give $1 million apiece to American Bridge 21st Century and $1 million to America Votes. American Bridge is a research group that targets Republican candidates, and America Votes is a coalition that includes unions, environmentalists and women’s groups.

He contributed $23.7 million to pro-Democratic groups and political organizations in 2004, more than any other donor, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington- based research group.

Original post is Soros: $1 M for Obama-Backing Super-PAC by Political Capital.