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If the story of Donald Trump’s supporting super PACs is one of disarray and infighting with underwhelming financial results, the story of Hillary Clinton’s super PACs is one of total domination. Outside groups supporting Clinton have outspent Trump groups nearly two to one, and one group, Priorities USA, has been able to command record-shattering amounts of money. The situation couldn’t be more different than 2012, when groups supporting Romney drastically outspent those supporting Obama. Some of the big players from that election, like American Crossroads, are sitting out this round, largely thanks to Trump.
As we head into the last week before the election, let’s take a look at what the super PACs supporting Clinton have spent. We’re focusing on the groups specifically dedicated to Clinton that we profiled last year, as well as the millions are being spent by other groups.
Priorities USA is the outside spending behemoth of this election, and indeed all time, raising more money than any super PAC in history: more than $175 million to date. The group has made $108,977,100 in independent expenditures, meaning it finally passed the pro-Jeb Bush super PAC Right to Rise USA. Its last filing showed that it had $15 million cash on hand as of Oct. 19. Almost all of its independent expenditures, $110 million, have been ads opposing Trump rather than supporting Clinton.
Priorities’ biggest donors include some Democratic megadonors: hedge-fund manager Donald Sussmann, who has given a total of $21 million to the group, businessman George Soros and entrepreneur Fred Eychaner.
Priorities also has a joint fundraising committee with EMILY’s List Women Vote!, which has raised exactly $1 million. It’s transferred most of that money to Women Vote!.
Correct the Record is an interesting case. Its whole apparently legal existence depends on it not making independent expenditures, because it openly coordinates with the Clinton campaign, which is otherwise forbidden for a super PAC. Last year, a Correct the Record spokesperson told The Washington Post that the group would be using the FEC’s “internet exemption,” which exempts content posted for free online from the rules banning coordinated communications. Hacked emails from Wikileaks indicate that Correct the Record was indeed coordinating with the campaign.
But Correct the Record’s inability to run ads doesn’t mean it hasn’t been working to elect Clinton. Correct the Record received a lot of criticism in March when it announced its Barrier Breakers project, a “digital task force” to “push back” against anti-Clinton content on social media like Twitter and Reddit. Correct the Record claimed it would spend $1 million on this effort. So, according to Correct the Record at least, the group is spending money on supporting Clinton — just not on the “coordinated communications” that would be prohibited by the FEC. The Campaign Legal Center is not convinced by this argument, filing a complaint with the FEC earlier this month.
American Bridge, which primarily focuses on opposition research against GOP candidates, has only recently made any significant independent expenditures this cycle. In October, it made about $140,000 in expenditures against Trump on video production and mailings. The payee was Ourso Beychok Inc., which is owned by former American Bridge Campaign Director and current Media Matters President Bradley Beychok’s father, Michael Beychok. The New York Times reported in July 2015 that David Brock, the group’s founder, was leaving American Bridge to move to Correct the Record and focus on the “coordinated side,” where independent expenditures supporting Clinton were banned, but he’s continued to receive around $9,000 a month from the group, implying he never actually left the “so-called independent expenditure side.”
Aside from independent expenditures, American Bridge is still spending a lot of money: $17.5 million throughout the cycle. Most of that goes on payroll and consulting; of that, they’ve paid $2.1 million to the Bonner Group for fundraising work.
The rest
When we last wrote about the Clinton-supporting super PACs last year, we included Ready PAC, a hybrid super PAC formerly known as Ready for Hillary. That group has made no independent expenditures and hasn’t otherwise spent anything significant this year; its disbursements seem to be mostly payroll and legal costs.
A number of other groups have also dropped several million each on supporting Clinton or opposing Trump, spending enough to compete with the pro-Trump groups even without Priorities USA:
To see how this compares with outside spending on Trump’s behalf, read our companion post on the pro-Trump super PACs.
The Sunlight Foundation is a non-profit, nonpartisan organization that uses the power of the Internet to catalyze greater government openness and transparency, and provides new tools and resources for media and citizens, alike.