The Wesleyan Media Project, using Kantar Media/CMAG data analyzed in partnership with the Center for Responsive Politics, announced today that outside interest groups — and to a large extent the nondisclosing “dark money” kind — are spending big in the 2014 midterms. The new report pegs spending by outside groups at $120 million, the majority of which, $97 million, has been pouring into the most contentious Senate races.

The costs detailed in the Wesleyan Media Project’s data include only the cost of the television airtime, unlike Federal Election Commission (FEC) data, which includes not only the cost of other forms of electioneering like mailers and print ads but also the expenses associated with producing the communications. This kind of ad buy data, however, catches spending that goes unreported to the FEC, particularly by 501(c) organizations making politically charged “issue ads” that must be reported to the FEC only during certain windows of time close to a general or primary election.

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That window opens tomorrow (Sept. 5) for the Nov. 4 election, and much more reporting of ad spending can be expected. Still, dark money organizations have already reported record totals in 2014. The growth in political activity by these groups is reinforced by the new report, which says dark money organizations have already dropped $68 million on air time alone in Senate and House races, making up 56 percent of all the spending.

Americans for Prosperity — a 501(c)(4) organization at the center of the network of nonprofits backed by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch — tops the list of spenders so far this cycle, with an estimated $16.7 million in airtime under its belt at the end of August. AFP barely edged out the $16.6 million in airtime bought by Senate Majority PAC — a liberal super PAC that, unlike AFP, has to disclose the sources of its funding.

AFP is not the only Koch-backed organization making the list of top federal spenders in terms of airtime this cycle. Freedom Partners — a massive 501(c)(6) trade association that served as a conduit for the bulk of the $400 million that the Koch network raised in 2012 — has begun to spend directly on ads in 2014 as has another group, Concerned Veterans for America, that derives most of its funding from the Koch network. Both groups have spent an estimated $2.1 million on air time in 2014.

Most of the biggest spenders on the left are super PACs (which must disclose their donors), but one dark money group stands out. Patriot Majority USA — a shape-shifting 501(c)(4) with a shoddy record of “educating voters” — has spent an estimated $6.2 million on airtime, much of which has gone into the same races the Koch-backed groups are spending on, but on the other side.

Not all of the dark money spent so far in 2014 has come directly from 501(c) organizations. Citizens for a Working America PAC, a super PAC funded almost entirely by two 501(c)(4) organizations, has bought 4,673 spots in the Georgia senate race. As OpenSecrets Blog reported in July, Citizens for a Working America has been part of a tangled effort to support Republican candidates in Illinois and Georgia.

North Carolina’s wild Senate race has seen the heaviest concentration of ads run in the 2014 cycle, more than 35,500 so far.



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