A special-interest spending spree
With nine months to go before the presidential election, special-interest groups have already spent $14 million on their favorites. The spending spree is sure to continue until November. Nancy Marshall Genzer reports.
Berto Gonzalez votes in the Florida primary at a polling station in Miami. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
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Scott Jagow: In the presidential election eight years ago, special-interest groups spent $1 million for the entire primary season... A million dollars. This year, already, they've spent $14 million.
And now that we've come out of Super Tuesday with the nominations still in doubt, those groups will be spending even more. Nancy Marshall Genzer has this report.
Nancy Marshall Genzer: We're talking about wealthy individuals, unions and business groups. There's an organization called Trust Huckabee. The Wall Street Journal reports this group claims it spent $167,000 so far. Two others in California spent more than $300,000 for Barack Obama.
These special interest groups can take money from anybody -- in most cases, they don't have to identify their donors. There are no limits on how much cash they can rake in.
And campaign finance watchdog Fred Worthheimer says the federal government isn't likely to review the spending until after the presidential election.
Fred Worthheimer: It is a potential problem. Particularly since, in 2004, the Federal Election Commission found after that election that a number of groups were spending money illegally.
And Worthheimer points out these groups haven't started their serious spending. They're saving most of their money for the general election.
In Washington, I'm Nancy Marshall Genzer for Marketplace.
