Since last year’s midterm election, 26 new super PACs have sprung into existence, filing organizational paperwork with the Federal Election Commission. Super PACs are political committees that may raise unlimited amounts of money from any source as long as the donations are disclosed and the money is only spent on independent political advertisements.

Super PACs came into existence in part because of the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling and the 2010 SpeechNow.org v. Federal Election Commission ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which allowed corporations and unions to use their treasuries to finance political advertisements known as independent expenditures. During the 2010 elections, 61 super PACs recorded fund-raising activity.

Of the new super PACs, 13 are conservative leaning, nine are liberal leaning and four are non-partisan in nature, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics. Six conservative super PACs have registered with the FEC in the past five weeks.

The total number of super PACs registered with the FEC since they came into existence in July is now up to 108.

Below are charts detailing the registration of federal super PACs since November’s midterm elections:



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