American Crossroads: 2012 Fundraising Goal

Brody Mullins writes at The Wall Street Journal:

Two conservative groups founded last year with the help of Republicans Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie have set a goal of raising $120 million in the effort to defeat President Barack Obama, win a GOP majority in the Senate and protect the party's grip on the House in the 2012 election.

That effort comes as Democratic groups are promising to raise tens of millions of dollars for their own independent advertising effort to help Mr. Obama win a second term. The arms race could result in a record level of spending on the 2012 campaign.

If the conservative groups meet the target disclosed to The Wall Street Journal, they would establish their organizations—American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS—as possibly the largest force in the 2012 campaign, aside from the presidential candidates themselves and the political parties.

...

Major labor unions have pledged a combined $30 million this year to oppose efforts by some Republican governors to eliminate collective bargaining across the country. That leaves unions with less money for the 2012 election.

"Every dollar [Republicans] force unions to spend protecting collective bargaining is a dollar that can't be spent on politics, representing workers or organizing new workers," said Steve Rosenthal, a Democratic political strategist for labor unions.

Leaders of the two Crossroads groups say they will focus on television advertising and other election activities, which could complement the Republican National Committee's focus on rallying Republican voters and funding state parties.

Campaign-finance rules give groups such as Crossroads an advantage over the RNC. Because political parties can't raise more than $30,000 from an individual, they must spend millions of dollars to raise money from thousands of donors.

Outside groups face no such caps, so they can raise larger amounts from fewer individuals, incurring smaller fund-raising expenses in the process. American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS disclosed in an annual report sent to donors this week that they spent 96% of the money raised on campaigns.

The RNC spent about 70% of its money for the 2010 campaign on fund raising and other overhead expenses.