Karl Rove and his investors were the biggest losers on Election Day.

The Republican strategist who created the model for the outside money groups that raised and spent more than $1 billion on the Nov. 6 elections saw almost no return for their money.

Rove, through his two political groups, American Crossroads and Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, backed unsuccessful Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney with $127 million on more than 82,000 television spots, according to Kantar Media’s CMAG, an ad tracker based in New York.

Ten of the 12 Senate candidates and four of the nine House candidates they supported also lost their races.

The results have angered some Republicans who blame Rove for “sidelining conservatives” and diverting money from them.

“Right now there is stunned disbelief that Republicans fared so poorly after all the money they invested,” said Brent Bozell, president of For America, an Alexandria-based nonprofit that advocates for Christian values in politics.

“If I had 1/100th of Karl Rove’s money, I would have been more productive than he was.”

Donald Trump posted a message on Twitter saying: “Congrats to KarlRove on blowing $400 million this cycle. Every race CrossroadsGPS ran ads in, the Republicans lost. What a waste of money.”

Jonathan Collegio, a Crossroads spokesman, declined to comment for this article. Rove couldn’t be reached.

ROVE’S STRATEGY

The Election Day results showed Rove’s strategy of bringing in huge donations from a few wealthy benefactors and spending that money almost completely on television advertising failed.

The Center for Responsive Politics estimates the two Crossroads groups spent about $176 million, making them the top non-candidate and non-party spender of the election.

American Crossroads, a super-political action committee, discloses its contributors and spending to the Federal Election Commission.

Its affiliate, Crossroads GPS, is organized as a nonprofit social-welfare group that conceals its donors and reports only a fraction of its political activities.

“If the rule in politics is you win or lose by the election results, Karl Rove is a big-time loser in the 2012 presidential and congressional races,” said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, which advocates for limits to campaign spending.

Still, “Karl Rove certainly knows how to make a lot of money for political consultants and TV stations,” he said.

INVESTMENT RETURNS

The return on investment for American Crossroads donors was one per cent, according to an analysis by the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington-based group that advocates for open government.

The group calculated the number based on how much of the money was spent supporting winners.

For donors to sister-organization Crossroads GPS, the success rate was 13 per cent, the group said. That’s a lower return than for donations to the National Republican Congressional Committee and to the two major Democratic congressional super-PACs, according to Sunlight.

Houston home builder Bob Perry gave $7.5 million to Rove’s American Crossroads and another $8 million to Restore Our Future, a super-PAC that supported Romney.