Conservative groups have spent up to $75 million in undisclosed funds, dwarfing left

As you know, the conservative groups that are plowing huge sums of money from undisclosed donors into the midterm elections have been defending their actions by insisting that groups on the left are doing the same.

So I thought it would be interesting to do a straight-up informal comparison: How much in undisclosed donations is being spent by the right on independent expenditures and election communications, versus how much is coming from the left.

Here are the results. According to data from the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation, conservative groups that have spent significant sums have plowed nearly $75 million in undisclosed donations alone into this election.

By contrast, liberal groups have spent under $10 million -- around one eighth that sum. And much of that is coming from groups that weren't set up just to influence elections.

News orgs have done comparisons along these lines before, but they've only compared overall spending, which is to say, disclosed and undisclosed donations taken together. And I am emphatically not trying to show here that the left, which is benefiting from huge amounts of labor cash, is being hugely outspent in an overall sense.

What I've done here is an informal comparison of only undisclosed money, which is at the heart of the searing national debate over whether our elections are being swamped by secret cash.

When you compare the two lists of groups -- which you can see after the jump -- the disparity is almost comical. As you can see from the lists, the undisclosed cash flowing from the right goes far beyond what's coming from Karl Rove's groups or the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Around a dozen conservative groups with very anodyne names have also kicked in big six- and seven-figure sums.

The total on the right: $74,733,356. On the left: $9,868,057. And the groups on the left, unlike on the right, consist of well-known names like the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife.

The figures I'm using come from Sunlight Foundation's list of groups spending money on the election. According to Sunlight, any group that isn't marked "donors" on its list has not disclosed its sources of funding.

Now, a major caveat: This is largely a back-of-the-envelope calculation, because my tally is, of necessity, going to be flawed. For one thing, we can't be sure precisely what much of this money is being spent on. I've tried to compensate for that by only including groups on both sides that are vaguely recognizable and seem to be directly and broadly investing in the national elections.

Another problem: Groups on both sides are also spending money on field operations, which isn't included here. I've also not included groups on both sides that are spending comparativly insignificant amounts.

If I've missed any significant spending on either side, let me know and I'll update. Similarly, if there are groups on that list that shouldn't be there, I want to know that, too. This is meant to be a working tally, not a final pronouncement.

Check out the lists of groups and their totals after the jump.



Conservative:

American Action Network: $4,930,690 American Future Fund: $13,829,863 Americans for Job Security: $5,833,469 Americans for Limited Government: $705,045 Americans for Tax Reform: $3,545,412 Center for Individual Freedom: $1,886,869 Crossroads GPS: $11,484,016 Ending Spending Fund: $1,150,000 Revere America: $1,539,048 60 Plus Association: $5,574,166 U.S. Chamber of Commerce: $23,644,188 Republican Jewish Coalition: $610,590 Total: $74,733,356



Liberal: