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October 15, 2010 11:33AM

Free Speech Means More Equal Speech

By John Samples

SHARE

You might have gotten the impression that spending by outside groups in the current election cycle will fund a “giant bullhorn” for Republican candidates in the current election cycle while Democrats and liberals will have to whisper.


Yet the Rothenberg Political Report finds:

Throughout the election cycle, the National Republican Congressional Committee trailed the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in available money by at least a 2‐​to‐​1 ratio.

A detailed story in the Wall Street Journal summarizes “the Democratic Party and candidates had raised a total of $1.25 billion so far for the election. The comparable GOP figure is $1.1 billion.”


The Democrats enjoy, in other words, a $150 million dollar advantage, if we look only at party fundraising.


Now consider the outside groups:

In total, outside conservative groups—such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Action Network and American Crossroads—could spend more than $300 million on TV advertisements, campaign mailings and other efforts to elect Republicans to Congress this year. Outside Democratic groups, by contrast, plan to spend about $100 million on those activities.

But don’t forget the labor unions:

The largest labor unions say they will spend $200 million combined, but most of their focus will be on rallying union voters.

I conclude that the outside GOP groups will raise almost exactly as much as outside Democratic groups and the labor unions combined. The Democratic Party, however, will still enjoy a significant fundraising advantage over the Republican Party.


The Republican outside groups thus tend to level what would have been, absent their activities, a very unequal playing field in 2010.


I am not certain whether this closing of what would have been a huge Democratic fundraising advantage has anything to do with all of the complaints about “secret groups undermining democracy.” What do you think?

Related Tags
Government and Politics, Constitutional Law, Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies

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